AAP Soccer

Holders PSG land tough Champions League examination

By AAP Newswire

Aug 29, 2025

PSG — European champs Paris St Germain have been handed a tough start to the defence of their title. -AP

Holders Paris St Germain have been given a tough start to the defence of their Champions League crown, with games against Bayern Munich and Barcelona as well as other top English and Spanish adversaries.

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PSG's easiest opponents, in theory, in the league phase will be the not inconsiderable duo of Premier League Newcastle and La Liga's Athletic Bilbao.

Tottenham, the Europa League champions, also will play PSG in a repeat of their Super Cup game two weeks ago.

PSG's eight-game schedule will be completed bymatches against Bayer Leverkusen, Atalanta and Sporting Lisbon.

Real Madrid have also got a challenging draw, including a trip far east to play Kairat Almaty, of Kazakhstan — 6420km from the Spanish capital.

Record 15-time champions Madrid have also got two English opponents from the pot of highest-ranked teams.

They'll host Manchester City, who they beat in the knock-out playoffs last season, and they'll return to Liverpool after losing 2-0 at Anfield in the league phase last year.

Madrid will also face Juventus in a repeat of their 2017 final win, and two French opponents, Marseille and Monaco — where superstar forward Kylian Mbappe started his career.

Liverpool fans will welcome Trent Alexander-Arnold back to Anfield with Madrid, and have away trips to the vibrant stadiums of Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Marseille and Galatasaray.

Bayern Munich will have rematches of two recent finals – at home to Chelsea where the German champions lost the 2012 title game on home turf, and away to PSG, who they eat in the 2020 final. Bayern will also go to Cyprus to face Pafos.

Manchester City must travel north of the Arctic Circle to face Bodo/Glimt, of Norway, on their artificial surface while they'll host ther old favourite Kevin De Bruyne, who left in the close season for Napoli.

Inter Milan, which lost two of the last three finals, will host the top two teams in the Premier League last season, Liverpool and Arsenal.

This is the second season of the league phase format with 36 teams playing eight different opponents on a weighted schedule through January, and ranked in a single-standings table.

Four newcomers to the main stage of the Champions League are: Bodo/Glimt, Kairat Almaty, Russian-owned Pafos and Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise.