Liverpool have found the eight opponents they’ll face within the newly-expanded UEFA Champions League’s 36-team league section.
A serious revamp to the match sees all 36 golf equipment grouped in a single total desk, with every crew going through eight completely different sides to find out the ending positions and, subsequently, the composition of the draw for the knockout rounds.
We gained’t know the precise sequence of the fixtures till these are introduced on Saturday, however we now have realized which groups Arne Slot’s Reds shall be going through, and whether or not these shall be at residence or away.
Our opponents within the league section of the 2024-25 @ChampionsLeague ✨ pic.twitter.com/5gMriXTaeB
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 29, 2024
There’ll be no scarcity of recollections – for higher and for worse – of previous European Cup/Champions League finals, with Liverpool going through each Actual Madrid and AC Milan. The reigning title holders come to Anfield, whereas we’ll have a visit to the San Siro.
LFC may have two opponents from Germany, with Xabi Alonso returning to Merseyside as Bayer Leverkusen boss and the Reds travelling to face RB Leipzig, who we eradicated from this match within the spherical of 16 in 2020/21.
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The opposite two groups making the journey to Anfield are Lille (who we met within the 2009/10 Europa League) and match newcomers Bologna, who’ll be hoping to emulate the feat of fellow Serie A outfit Atalanta final April by profitable in L4.
They’re not the one Champions League first-timer that Liverpool will face, with Slot’s crew off to Spain to face Girona, who’re a part of the Metropolis Soccer Group portfolio.
Our new head coach can even be going again to his native Netherlands to tackle PSV Eindhoven, who we met six occasions on this competitors when Rafael Benitez was in cost.
The draw actually may’ve been kinder to Liverpool, who’ve suffered lots by the hands of Actual Madrid over the previous decade (two ultimate losses, two different knockout spherical eliminations, a pair of group defeats in 2014) and face a Leverkusen aspect who misplaced just one match in the entire of final season.
All eight of our opponents are from home leagues which rank within the high six of UEFA’s association club coefficient, though the flip aspect of that coin is that we don’t have any far-flung journeys to jap Europe, which’ll be appreciated from a journey/logistical perspective.
It’ll solely be because the match progresses in its new format that we get a deal with on the mindset wherein we’ll strategy every fixture, however with every place counting for one thing when the knockout rounds begin, there ought to be one thing driving on each single recreation that we play.
Some powerful exams await, however it’s nice to be again within the Champions League after our absence from the competitors final time period!
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