Champions League: Tough road for PSG and Real Madrid, Barça faces Chelsea

On Thursday, the 36 teams that will compete in Europe's top soccer tournament were drawn.

Champions League draw in MonacoZUMAPRESS.com/Cordon Press.

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28 de agosto, 2025

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Paris Saint-Germain will face a tough task to win the Champions League again, a feat they achieved for the first time in the last edition. The draw for the group stage held Thursday in Monaco also brought bad news for the championship's all-time top champion, Real Madrid, and good news for its classic Spanish rival FC Barcelona.

For the second year, an automated computer system was unveiling the roadmaps of each team, according to AFP. Former Brazilian footballer Kaka was pushing the button to trigger it, in the case of the top favorites, the Cup 1 seeded members.

From mid-September to the end of January, over eight rounds, the 36 teams in the single group will determine a joint standings in which the top eight will go straight through to the round of 16 and the teams between ninth and 24th place will have to face each other in a play-off to seek that same objective.

No relaxation for PSG

Chance was not kind to defending champions PSG, who will have a veritable obstacle course in those eight matchdays, with none to allow them any theoretical relaxation.

Last year the Parisians avoided a premature elimination on the last matchday and this term they will have uncomfortable outings to the fields of FC Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon and Athletic Club Bilbao.

There will also be visitors with pedigree at the Parc des Princes: Bayern Munich, Newcastle, Atalanta and Tottenham, those last two being the two most recent winners of the Europa League.

None of the theoretical cinderella of Cups 3 and 4 went to Luis Enrique's team.

Heads and tails for the Spanish giants

Eternal rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona had mixed fortunes, with the former having a tougher time.

Los Blancos will have to face two English giants like Liverpool, with whom they already played in last season's group stage, and Manchester City, whom they eliminated in the play-off to reach the round of 16.

They are joined by historic teams such as Juventus and Benfica, two French Ligue 1 teams (Marseille and Monaco) and two trips to the grounds of Olympiakos and faraway Kairat Almaty Kazakhstan.

For Barça, former coach Luis Enrique's PSG and world champions Chelsea will be the two big obstacles. The rest of the opponents (Eintracht, Brujas, Olympiakos, Slavia Prague, Copenhagen, Newcastle) seem more affordable.

Atletico Madrid will have to visit two English giants (Liverpool and Arsenal), while Athletic will be at home to their strongest rivals (PSG and Arsenal), as will Villarreal (Manchester City and Juventus).

De Bruyne to return to the Etihad

Among the duels that this automated draw brought forth, some of them stand out as being loaded with special significance.

Napoli will have to visit Manchester City, for example, which will mean the return of Belgian Kevin De Bruyne to the Etihad Stadium, the stadium where he achieved his greatest successes, to visit a club he left in June after ten seasons.

The 'Cinderellas' face off

The draw also brought up an interesting face off between Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan and Pafos of Cyprus, two of the new faces and considered the tournament's cinders after surprisingly securing qualification this week.

Among the big guns, Real Madrid will be the only one to have to travel all the way to Kazakhstan to visit Kairat Almaty, on a long journey of 6,500 kilometers.

New time for the final

The final of the competition will take place at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on May 30, 2026 and the main novelty will be the time, as it will change from 9 pm local time to 6 pm.