What to look out for on matchday one of new 2024-25 Champions League

The curtain is set to go up next Tuesday on a new era for European football as the league phase of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League gets underway on Tuesday, September 17.

Gone is the traditional group stage where 32 teams were split into eight groups of four with the top two sides progressing to the round of 16 and the third placed side dropping to the Europa League.

The new format sees the 36 teams involved in the ‘league phase’ rather than the ‘group stage’ and this so called Swiss model will see teams playing eight games in this phase, four at home and four away over the eight matchdays that run between September and January of 2025.

The top eight teams will advance directly to the round of 16, clubs finishing 9th to 16th will be seeded for the playoff round and face those ranked 17th to 24th, who will be unseeded. The bottom 12 teams will be eliminated.

Matchday 1 Champions League games to be played on Thursday

The dates for the matchday one games confirmed that fans will be treated to UCL action across three nights: Tuesday, September 17, Wednesday, September 18 and Thursday, September 19 with subsequent matchdays reverting to the traditional Tuesday and Wednesday nights, with Europa League (and later Conference League) games being held on Thursday nights.

Full Champions League 2024/25 matchday 1 fixtures