Winners, losers and oddities from the 2025-26 Champions League draw

After all eight games have finished, the top eight teams on results will move directly into the knockout phase of the tournament. The next 16 best teams will face off against one another in a two-legged playoff; the winners of these playoffs will join the top eight in the knockout rounds.

The league phase draw brought up many fascinating questions and permutations for the 2025-26 tournament. Here are the three key takeaways from the schedule as we prepare for the Champions League to begin:

Fans won't have to wait for headlining matches; there are plenty in the opening league phase

When the Champions League transitioned from a traditional group stage format to its current "league phase" model last season, the intention was that more high-profile matches would be available earlier in the competition than ever before. That idea has paid off.

Liverpool is set to host Real Madrid — now featuring ex-Liverpool legend Trent Alexander-Arnold — in the league phase. Tottenham Hotspur will travel to Paris Saint-Germain in a rematch of this year's Super Cup final. And Bayern Munich will head back to Arsenal... pitting former Spurs man Harry Kane against the Gunners once again.

Far-flung debutants will force several teams into grueling travel

Champions League travel, constrained as it is to the European continent, has never been that taxing. (It's nothing compared to the distances American teams cover during their regular seasons.) But this year's edition of the Champions League features several fascinating debutant clubs whose locations will stretch the limits of European travel — and likely exhaust their high-profile opponents.

Norway's Bodo/Glimt, a fan favorite side whose home stadium sits above the Arctic Circle, will welcome Manchester City, Juventus, Tottenham Hotspur and AS Monaco to its icy turf this winter. (No, its stadium is not covered, and yes, it will be a glorious mess to watch Europe's best attempt to survive its brutal weather.)

Azerbaijan's Qarabag will bring Chelsea, Frankfurt, Ajax and Copenhagen to the far western shores of the Caspian Sea. And in a shocking twist that will see the biggest travel distances in Champions League history, Kazakhstan's Kairat Almaty will host Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Olympiakos and Pafos at its home in the Central Asian Steppe. 

Almaty is in far eastern Kazakhstan and shares a longitudinal line with India's capital, New Delhi. Real Madrid will cover nearly 8,000 air miles on its round-trip journey there: that's the equivalent of crossing the continental U.S. three times.

There are three USMNT-heavy matchups to look forward to

There are seven Americans scattered among the 32 teams of the Champions League this season, and several of them are set to face off against one another during the opening phase of the tournament.

Fans of the USMNT should mark their calendars for these three matches, all of which feature American players on both sides of the field: PSV vs. Atletico Madrid (defender Sergiño Dest and striker Ricardo Pepi vs. midfielder Johnny Cardoso), PSV vs. Bayer Leverkusen (Dest and Pepi vs. attacking midfielder Malik Tillman) and Monaco vs. Juventus (striker Folarin Balogun vs. midfielder Weston McKennie).

Marseille's Tim Weah, the one remaining American in the Champions League, will not face off against any of his countrymen... but he will face off against the likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid during his Champions League journey.

The 2025-26 UEFA Champions League will kick off on Tuesday, Sept. 16.