The eight rivals of Barça in the 26-27 Champions League league phase

BarcelonaBarça already knows the first part of the path to reach the dreamed Champions League final which will be played on June 5, 2027 at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid. Hansi Flick's team, which fell in the quarterfinals of the previous edition precisely in this venue, will face very tough rivals in the first phase of the competition.

The opponents the blaugranes will face will be Manchester City, Como, Aston Villa and Feyenoord, at home, and PSG, Sporting de Lisboa, Galatasaray and Sabah of Azerbaijan, away from Camp Nou. This time, luck has not been on Barça's side. The match calendar includes a visit to the Parc des Prínces, where PSG, the champion of the last two Champions Leagues, will be waiting, and an exciting duel in Barcelona against City, now coached by Enzo Maresca after Pep Guardiola's departure. It will also be tough to visit Sporting de Portugal, second in their league and a traditional contender in the continental competition, and the hell of Galatasaray, champion of the Turkish league for the last four seasons. To reach the round of 16, Flick's team will also have to overcome obstacles such as Aston Villa, Europa League champion, or Cesc Fàbregas' Como, a debutant in the tournament. The exotic match of the round will be against Sabah Baku, which has never played in the Champions League either. In fact, this club did not even exist a decade ago.

Real Madrid, for their part, will play at home against Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven, Leipzig and Austrian Lask, at home, and Arsenal, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk and AEK Athens, far from the Santiago Bernabéu. That is to say, José Mourinho's team will have to perform at its best to defeat the champions of the English Premier League, the Italian Serie A, and the Dutch Eredivisie. Atlético de Madrid will not have it easy either, as they will face no less than Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Fenerbahçe and Viking, at the Metropolitano, and Liverpool, PSV, Bodo/Glimt and Stuttgart, away. Betis, included in pot 2, returns to the top competition with duels against Arsenal, Porto, Feyenoord and Como, at home, and Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, Lille and Slovan Bratislava, far from the Benito Villamarín. The fifth La Liga club in the Champions League, Villarreal, will try to improve on last season's dismal performance against the following opponents: PSG, Manchester United, Napoli and Sabah, at home, Liverpool, Dortmund, Fenerbahçe and Slavia Prague, away.

The definitive times and dates for each match will not be official until the end of this week. UEFA will publish them based on the television needs of each broadcasting country.

How does the Champions League format work?

The format will be the same as the last editions; each team will face eight rivals (four at home and four away) to earn points, which will be accumulated in a league table where all clubs are included. The first eight classified teams will directly access the round of 16, while those from ninth to twenty-fourth will play a play-offs to a double tie. Furthermore, the teams that finish higher in the standings will play the second leg of the ties at home. For this first draw, the participants have been divided into four pots (ordered by coefficient) and will face two opponents from each of the pots, one at home and the other away. Barça, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid were in pot 1, Betis in pot 2 and Villarreal in pot 3.

The most important rounds of the competition will be the round of 16 (from March 10 to 18), the quarter-finals (from April 7 to 15), and the semi-finals (from April 28 to May 6). All over two legs with no away goals rule. The final will be on Saturday, June 5, at the Metropolitano in Madrid, a weekend after the Spanish League concludes.