Arsenal drew Real Madrid and Bayern, and PSG got Barcelona and Manchester City
The 2026/27 Champions League league phase draw was made in Monaco on 27 August. Arsenal, beaten in the final in May, host Real Madrid and travel to Bayern Munich.
Aug 28, 2026
Arsenal lost the Champions League final in May on penalties. Three months later the draw handed them Real Madrid at the Emirates and a trip to Bayern Munich, which is one way of easing a club back into the competition. The 2026/27 league phase draw was made at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Thursday 27 August, and the tie everyone noticed alongside it was Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain.
Arsenal get the two biggest names in the draw
The Premier League champions were in pot one, which is supposed to protect a club from the worst of it. It did not do much here. Arsenal host Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Lille and Sabah, and travel to Bayern, Real Betis, Napoli and Slavia Praha. Real Madrid and Bayern have won the competition 21 times between them.
Mikel Arteta’s side at least get the bigger of the two at the Emirates rather than away. They reached the final in Budapest last season and lost it 4-3 on penalties, after 120 minutes had finished 1-1.
PSG drew Barcelona, Manchester City and Aston Villa
The holders, seeded top of pot one as champions, have the most demanding set of eight in the draw. Paris host Barcelona, Roma, Galatasaray and Slovan Bratislava, and go to Manchester City, Aston Villa, Villarreal and Como. Barcelona and City in the same eight is not a kind allocation for a side chasing a third title in a row. Only Real Madrid have managed that in the Champions League era, across 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Barcelona’s own draw runs the other way through the same fixture. They host City, Aston Villa, Feyenoord and Como, and travel to Paris, Sporting CP, Galatasaray and Sabah. That gives them Paris and Manchester City out of pot one, two of the English clubs they would least want to meet, and a trip to Azerbaijan to face Sabah.
Five English clubs, and one of them is back
Manchester United are back in the competition for the first time since 2023/24, having finished third in the Premier League, and drew Bayern at Old Trafford, with Roma, RB Leipzig and Sabah also visiting. Their away games are Atletico Madrid, Sporting CP, Villarreal and Como. Bayern at home on a European night is the fixture the club would have written for itself.
Liverpool came out of it better than most. They host Atletico Madrid, Porto, Villarreal and Lens, and travel to Inter, Club Brugge, Fenerbahce and LASK. There is one genuinely awkward trip in that list and Istanbul is it. Manchester City host Paris, Sporting CP, Napoli and AEK Athens, and go to Barcelona, Porto, Leipzig and Lens.
Aston Villa, in pot two, drew Paris and Dortmund at Villa Park along with Fenerbahce and Viking, and away days at Barcelona, Club Brugge, Galatasaray and Slavia Praha. Drawing the holders and Barcelona out of the top pot is a hard start for a club that has to fit all of it around a Premier League season.
How the format works, and when it starts
Thirty-six clubs play eight opponents each in single-leg ties, four at home and four away, with two drawn from each of the four pots. That produces 144 matches across eight matchdays. The first is on 8, 9 and 10 September, and the league phase runs to 27 January 2027, with the intervening rounds on 13 and 14 October, 20 and 21 October, 3 and 4 November, 24 and 25 November, 8 and 9 December, and 19 and 20 January.
What nobody has yet is the schedule. UEFA decides which games land on which night and at what time, and said the full fixture list with dates and kick-off times would be published no later than Saturday 29 August. Until then, Arsenal supporters know Real Madrid are coming and not much else.