Champions League draw RECAP: Liverpool host Real Madrid and Arsenal face TWO trips to Italy in new format

Well the draw is over and everybody knows who will be facing who in the new 'league phase' of the Champions League, but what happens after that?

Well similar to league football, teams will be awarded three points for a win, one for a draw, and zero for a loss. The results of each match will decide the overall ranking in the league table.

Next, the top eight sides will qualify for the knockout stages automatically, but the teams finishing between 9th and 16th in the one-league format will then be seeded in a two-legged knock-out phase play-off to secure their path to the last 16.

Teams finishing 25th and below will be eliminated with no access to the Europa League.

Confusing? Yep. Will it work? Who knows but it's exciting!

Arsenal should be quiety confident about their Champions League hopes, but mustn't be complacent about their chances with a home clash against PSG and an away trip to Inter Milan posing as difficult encounters.

Girona starred in LaLiga last season and will also look to cause an upset when the Gunners make the trip to Spain.

However, Mikel Arteta can feel some ounce of relief after being given favourable draws against Dinamo Zagreb and Sporting Lisbon.

Anfield welcomes the return of Champions League football and Arne Slot's first task as Reds boss in Europe will see him come up against familiar opponents in both AC Milan and Real Madrid.

Kylian Mbappe will have the chance to light up Anfield when reigning holders Madrid make the trip, while they can also expect a raucuous reception at the San Siro in Milan when Liverpool travel overseas.

Xabi Alonso will also make his return to Liverpool with Bayer Leverkusen just months after being tipped to replace Jurgen Klopp at Anfield.

Aston Villa's debut year in the Champions League rings similar to Newcastle's appearance in the competition last season. Bayern Munich and Juventus travelling to Villa Park represents magical ties, while Celtic will also make the visit.

An away trip to Monaco is a tough test in Europe as is taking on Club Brugge and Young Boys on the road.

One reoccuring complaint from rival fans when it comes to Man City in the Champions League group stages is that they are given 'easy' opponents.

However, that isn't the case this time round after they have been drawn against three of Europe's biggest hitters.

A home tie against Inter Milan represents a repeat of the Champions League final from two seasons ago, while trips to Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus will be uncomformatable experiences.

Sporting Lisbon is another tough away test, while Feyenoord won't be a pushover on their visit to the Etihad.

Now the draw is over it's time to look at who every English team will play in the new-format league phase of the Champions League.

MAN CITY

Inter Milan (H)

PSG (A)

Club Brugge (H)

Juventus (A)

Sparta Prague (H)

Feyenoord (H)

Sporting Lisbon (A)

Bratislava (A)

ARSENAL

PSG (H)

Inter Milan (A)

Atalanta (A)

Shakhtar Donetsk (H)

Dinamo Zagreb (H)

Sporting Lisbon (A)

Monaco (H)

Girona (A)

LIVERPOOL

Real Madrid (H)

RB Leipzig (A)

Bayer Leverkusen (H)

AC Milan (A)

Lille (H)

PSV (A)

Bologna (H)

Girona (A)

ASTON VILLA

Bayern Munich (H)

RB Leipzig (A)

Juventus (H)

Club Brugge (A)

Celtic (H)

Young Boys (A)

Bologna (H)

AS Monaco (A)

Well that was a strange Champions League draw. Watching Cristiano Ronaldo press a big themed button took some of the usual glamour away from proceedings but when it comes to big matches, the new draw didn't miss a beat! We'll recap who every English team will play in just a moment!

Aston Villa are one of the final teams to find out their entire league phase opposition and what a draw that has been for Unai Emery's side. Hosting the likes of Bayern Munich and Juventus are the matches fans would have been dreaming off last night, while a trip to Monaco is a great away tie.

Bayern Munich - home

RB Leipzig - away

Juventus - home

Club Brugge - away

Celtic - home

Young Boys -away

Bologna - home

AS Monaco - away

Celtic are Scotland's sole representative in the Champions League this season and face some tough ties if they want to make it to the knockout stages. Home clashes aganist RB Leipzig and Club Brugge will be tough, but a trip south of the border bests that as they take on Aston Villa.

Leipzig - home

Borussia Dortmund - away

Club Brugge - home

Atalanta - away

Young Boys - home

Dinamo Zagreb - away

Bratislava - home

Aston Villa - away

A seemingly easier tie for Aston Villa this time round as they are drawn away to play Swiss side Young Boys who did give Man United a headache a couple of seasons ago.

What an introduction to the Champions League this is going to be for Aston Villa as they find out their third opponent with Serie A giants Juventus tasked with making the trip to Villa Park.

Arsenal have found out their opponents for the league phase of the competition with PSG and Inter Milan representing the toughest opponents. I suspect Gunners supporters will be feeling happy after seeing who they will play.

PSG - home

Inter Milan - away

Atalanta - away

Shakhtar Donetsk - home

Dinamo Zagreb - home

Sporting Lisbon - away

Monaco - home

Girona - away

If Conor Gallagher wants to play against familiar faces then he will have to wait until the knockout rounds because Atletico Madrid have avoided every English team.

The Gunners have found out their second opponent as they are drawn in PSG's pot with the match set to be played at the Emirates. Mikel Arteta will be hoping the remainder of the draw is kinder to his side.

Liverpool find out their entire league phase draw with Real Madrid the biggest clash, while they also face a reunification with Xabi Alonso's excellent Bayer Leverkusen side.

Real Madrid - home

RB Leipzig - away

Bayer Leverkusen - home

AC Milan - away

Lille - home

PSV - away

Bologna - home

Girona - away

Liverpool find out their next opponent as they are drawn to play Real Madrid. The massive Champions League clash will take place at Anfield.

Wow what a huge game that is for Aston Villa. Bayern Munich's draw is decided and Villa will have to host Bayern in the Midlands for a massive Champions League clash.

Liverpool and Aston Villa will have to wait to find out all of their opponents but both will play RB Leipzig in one of their eight league phase matches.

Both English teams will travel to Germany for the games.

We find out one of Arsenal's opponents as Inter Milan are given their opponents for the Champions League first stage. The Gunners will have to travel to Italy for the tie.

Man City find out their opponents for the Champions League with away games against PSG and Juventus representing tough tasks for Pep Guardiola's side.

MAN CITY GAMES:

Inter Milan - home

PSG - away

Club Brugge - home

Juventus - away

Sparta Prague - Home

Feyenoord - home

Sporting Lisbon - away

Bratislava - away

Man City have been pulled out by Buffon and now over to Ronaldo who presses a button to decide the rest of their League phase games.

We are still being shown a host of graphics and motivational videos to explain how the new technology will be used to decide today's league phase draw, however, teams will have to wait to find out when they will be in action.

UEFA have confirmed that after the draw, clubs will have to wait until Saturday to find out what date and time they will play.

We have just had a bizarre Champions League explainer video featuring some questionable acting by both Buffon and Zlatan Ibrahimovic who have explained the process invovled. We are being told the new-look competition is 'better for football'. We'll let you be the judge for that.

Now onto the league phase draw...

Nobody has taken their eye off Cristiano Ronaldo as he steps on stage to receive his award. The Man United and Real Madrid legend has won the compeition five times and is the Champions League top scorer with 140 goals.

He has just been discussing what it means to him to have played at the top of Europe for so long. He was asked about what was the most important of the five victories for him and gave a nod to when he won it for the first time with Man United in 2008.

Ronaldo also says his first goal was the most special. Jokes about missing a penalty for United in the final. ‘I won four times at Real Madrid and all the stories we had, in 2008 in Lisbon in front of Portuguese fans was special. The Champions League and the goals are like ketchup. When you open it keeps coming.’

'For me it's a pleasure to be here. This award means a lot to me. The CHampions League is the highest in football, the records speak for itself but to play in that competition is special. It's great to be here, I have nice memories when I come to Monaco for this gala.

'Our life is memories and I have very good ones. Let's see what the future brings. We always mention the first one, it's the most special. I rememer when I was in Manchester, I scored in the final, missed a penalty and it was so special.'

And now it's the time for Ronaldo to pick up another award that adds to his already packed collection. You can see him arriving at the Champions League draw below.

Buffon is accepting his award on-stage and had been talking about why the Champions League is so special. Both he and Cristiano Ronaldo will also be taking part in the official draw.

Buffon said: Not because I wanted to win it. Because I enjoyed playing it. It is the most important tournament for football

The Italian goakeeper enjoyed a legendary career that encapsulated 10 Serie A titles, a World Cup with Italy and numerous other top honours, ironically though he never won the Champions League.

Buffon has been chosen as the Presidents award winner and is greeted warmly on stage by UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin - who also names him on-stage as the best goalkeeper in history.

A great moment for the legendary Italian shot-stopper.

UEFA is taking the stance to get personal awards to both Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianluigi Buffon dished out early.

Oasis may be getting back together, but we are being treated to a different kind of musical performance to kick things off here. An opera singer is currently belting out the iconic Champions League tune, I can't understand a word of what is being said but it sounds good.

A montage of the best Champions League moments is being played in the backgorund and up pops Erling Haaland's face. Will he lift another European title with Man City this season?

Here we go then, we're underway at the glamorous UEFA headquarters in Nyom, Switzerland and now wait to find out who will be playing who in the newly-formatted Champions League competition.

The draw will officially get underway in just five minutes time. There will of course be the usual stages of dreary promotional conversational to get through but we will be wading through that to bring you the biggest moments from the draw right here.

He may no longer be playing in Europe, but Cristiano Ronaldo is Mr. Champions League and is in Nyom, Switzerland where the luxury draw is being made.

The 39-year-old icon is at the ceremony because he is set to be handed a special award for his extraordinary efforts in the Champions League with him winning five titles across spells at Man United and Real Madrid, not to mention being the Champions League top scorer with 141 goals.

I'm just surprised he was able to take time away from being a YouTube star to attend...

The good news is that despite all the changes being made, English teams and those from the same football association won't be able to play each other at the start of the competition as has been standard process before.

They can still play each other later in the competition but at least the big English beheamoths will avoid playing against one another in the early stages of the Champions League.

There will be balls used in today's draw but only to a limited extent with artificial intelligence instead being trusted where humans are no longer not.

That is because state-of-the-art Ai software will be used instead to decide what other seven teams will play the drawn side in the group stage based off a number of factors.

It's all very technical, but should make the process smoother and if there's any mixup like we had in the Champions League a couple of years ago then all fingers will point at the computer!

We didn't want to wait until 6pm to find out how the new Champions League draw could look, so we decided to simulate today's ceremony and got some interesting results.

Check out the results for yourself below.

Every team has been placed in a pot as usual standard, but there are only four pots for today's draw with nine teams in each.

Man City and Liverpool have both been placed in pot one alongside the likes of Real Madrid, PSG and Barcelona.

Arsenal are the only English team in pot two where they are joined by usual suspects AC Milan and Atletico Madrd.

Meanwhile, Champions League new boys Aston Villa are in pot four while Celtic have been placed in pot three.

The best teams from across Europe will be anxiously waiting to find out who they will face across their eight openeing Champions League matches. But special attention in England will be on the Premier League teams hoping to end Real Madrid's stranglehold.

Aston Villa - A dream for Villa fans who celebrated a stunning Premeir League campaign under Unai Emery to qualify for the Champions League for the first time.

Arsenal - The Gunners had their European dream ended at the quarter-final stages by Bayern Munich last season and will be hungry to go one better this season.

Man City - The last English team to win the Champions League and looked set to do so again last year before being knocked out by champions Real Madrid in an epic quarter-final clash. Is it time for England's best team to add a second European title?

Liverpool - Jurgen Klopp's parting legacy is a place in the Champions League for Liverpool who re embarking on a cup competition with new manager Arne Slot for the first time.

This truly is the start of a new era for the Champions League with the format of the competition being given a complete overhaul for the first time since 1992.

The number of matches played in the Champions League this season will increase from 125 to 189 and there’s even a new anthem - which is perhaps something that has outraged fans more than any other change.

No longer will teams compete in the traditional 32-team group phase, instead there will be a 36-team league phase where each side faces eight different teams (four at home and four away) between September and January.

Still not sure how to get your head around everything? Don't worry we've got you covered with a rundown of the new Champions League format below.

Hello, thanks for joining us and welcome to the Champions League draw. It's the same cup competition but a new format with today's draw marking a first trust in technology as the traditional ways are gone to make way for a new style group stage.

We'll explain everything in more detail ahead of the official draw getting started at 5pm.