The highly anticipated draw for the new Champions League format took place during the UEFA gala in Monaco on Thursday, setting the stage for some blockbuster encounters.
Lewandowski, who transferred to Barcelona from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022, will once again confront his former teammates. Last season, Bayern got the better of Barcelona twice in the group stage, with convincing wins of 2-0 and 3-0.
Meanwhile, reigning English champions Manchester City, managed by Pep Guardiola, will also have their hands full, facing off against formidable opponents like Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan—now featuring Polish midfielder Piotr Zieliński—and Juventus Turin.
Defending champions Real Madrid can breathe a sigh of relief after a relatively favorable draw, which includes matches against Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, and Italian sides Milan and Atalanta Bergamo.
This season marks the debut of a new Champions League format, with 36 teams competing in the regular phase instead of the previous 32. The teams will not be divided into groups but will instead play eight matches each, all counting towards a single league table.
The competition kicks off on September 17-19, with the league phase running until January 29, 2025. The full schedule is expected to be announced on Saturday.
Notably, this season will see several first-time participants in the Champions League. Bologna, featuring Polish players Łukasz Skorupski and Kacper Urbański, along with Aston Villa’s Matty Cash and Slovan Bratislava, will make their debuts. The Slovak club is the first from the country to compete in the tournament in 14 years. Additionally, two Austrian teams will compete simultaneously for the first time in history, including FC Salzburg, home to Polish defender Kamil Piątkowski.
In total, 13 Polish players are expected to feature in the squads of the 36 clubs competing in this phase, with Lewandowski leading the charge as the third-highest scorer in Champions League history, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Financial incentives are also higher this season, with each club qualifying for the league phase receiving EUR 18.62 million (up from EUR 15.64 million), and the winner of the final set to take home EUR 25 million (an increase from EUR 20 million).
The grand finale of this season’s Champions League is scheduled for May 31, 2024, in Munich.
Polish teams, however, have seen limited success in recent years. The last appearance by a Polish club in the Champions League was in the 2016/17 season. This year, Jagiellonia Białystok was eliminated in the third qualifying round.
(jh)
Source: PAP
