Liverpool to play Real Madrid, Arsenal & Man City to both face PSG | Champions League 2024/25 draw

right the new look Champions League draw has thrown up a number of big games Liverpool are going to face defending Champions Real Madrid while Aston Villa will come up against Bayern Munich and they'll take them on at Villa Park groups are no more instead each team plays eight games four home and four away in one 36 Team league phase still with me I hope so uh let's take a look then at what it threw up for Manchester City then so they will take on Inter Milan at home PSG away Club Brugge at home Juventus away fard at home Sporting Lisbon away Sparta Prague at home and slov bratto Slava away now we don't quite know the dates just yet that will be drawn on Saturday because they need to go back into the computer let's take a look at Arsenal then this is what uh Metta will take on then in their league phase PSG at home into Milan away Shak dunesque At Home Atlanta away D Zagreb at home Sporting Lisbon away Monaco at home jerona away Liverpool of course in this draw as well and they are up against old foes of Real Madrid you may remember that 2018 final uh I'd like to forget it uh so they take them on at home they're up against ABB liic Away by lusen at home AC Milan away Le at home PSV away bologna at home and jerona away uh what do we got next we've got Aston Villa of course emry in the Champions League draw so they will take on in the league phase Bayern Munich at home so Bayern Munich at Villa Park leig away Juventus at home Club brouge away uh Celtic at home that's an interesting tie for them a young boys away bologna at home and Monaco away and then finally of course the other British team that was in this draw Celtic uh so Brenda Rogers will take on leig at home brusher Dortmund away Club Brugge At Home Atlanta away away young boys at home din Mo Zagreb away uh slovan Bratislava at home and Aston Villa as we told you away so how does it all work you're crying out to know of course so teams in positions 25 to 36 after the group phase will be totally eliminated in January there's no dropping down into the Europa League at all this time around so the 16 teams in positions 9 through to 24 will get to play in knockout phase in February to earn them a place in the round of 16 and the easy thing is for the teams that finish in the top eight places in the league they go straight through to the round of 16 played in March beautifully explained and you've now all got it uh but these two we're watching the draw carve and doie joining me now um how good was it and Carvey first of all uh why has it all changed suddenly well it's changed I think because UEFA felt that the old format was getting a little bit stale especially in the group phases now I've got to give credit where it's due and it's really easy uh when it comes to Modern football to be a bit cynical and a bit jaded but I have to say that is the best draw I've ever seen I think it's probably the first draw I've seen that I've enjoyed what made you say that because it was actually entertaining okay I mean it had Cristiano Ronaldo mhm who'd flown in uh Jan Luigi Buon uh it had two brilliant presenters it had a brilliant film uh which had incredible acting by some of the most famous footballers in the world people like rodri were in it Zlatan stole the show explaining why the tournament has changed and then when we got to the actual draw that was brilliant as well because gone were all those balls and glass balls we basically had Jan Luigi Buon picking out one team Liverpool and then Cristiano Ronaldo who I have to say looked a little bit bored uh okay I hope he's not watching this but he was the one who was just pressing a button he pressed a button and straight away the computer would come up with that team's eight opponents so it was really slick it was really entertaining it was fastpaced and also it's thrown up some incredible games for instance a couple of years ago the final was Inter Milan versus Manchester City this time around that is just a league Phase game also Barcelona versus Bayern PSG versus Man City Real Madrid versus Liverpool PSG versus Arsenal Bayern versus PSG these could all be finals but they're actually going to be League phase games so I for one I'm totally one over I think this is going to be a brilliant new format doie do you feel the same uh you know in terms of the format how do you see it working out does it work out for you I think it's quite exciting because to be honest in the old format if you won your opening three games which say a man city or a Bayern Munich often did there are nine points with three games to go and there was very little Jeopardy involved whereas this time round put in your calendars the 29th of January because that is the final round of the League fixtures on that date you'll you know will'll be decided who's in the top eight who go automatically through to the last 16 who will have to play in the playoff and who will be automatically eliminated so the idea is that every goal matters every game from the first whistle to the 29th of January so it should make for more exting competition I was lucky enough to sit into the the UF for explainer and actually Jeopardy was the word they were using and it feels like there is a lot more jeopardy with this phase the cynic not me but the cynics out there will say Cristiano Ronaldo pushed a button the computer did this and all these lovely fixtures come up what do we say to that what that people would think maybe this is fixed um well it didn't look fixed to me I mean um you know and the games that have been thrown up we'll have to look at it in detail but I don't think there'll be any teams here who will be saying we got a really really tough draw uh our opponents got a really really easy draw uh at first clance everybody looks to have got a pretty sort of varied range of opponents Cristiano Ronaldo actually was on great form uh he looked he looked fitter than ever he looked really lean uh he looked really sharp he looked really tanned he was in good form he did a sort of interview on stage with uh the UF for president Alexander sheffrin beforehand uh the president gave him a special award I was kind of the cynical side of me was wondering is that why Cristiano Ronaldo had flown in uh for the draw because he he's nothing part not part of it is he let's face it he's not in a team no but he was getting this award because he is the highest scorer in the history of the champions league and actually one of the hosts made a joke about are you sure you've got enough room in your trophy cabinet for this trophy as well and then he gave a little plug to the Ronaldo Museum in madira and he said well I'm going to put it there and if you're in madira pop in and have a look around my museum but he was in great form actually and in the interview museums are available yeah in in the interview on stage before the draw I thought was it Alexander sheffron who asked him a really good question about would you come back maybe in the future to the champions league and he didn't he didn't rule it out he said watch this space you never know in football so I think he's already got 140 goals don't rule out him returning and adding to that incredible total he's never going to rule it out is he um look there were some pretty interesting ties with your European football hat on um what stood out for you I think Real Madrid going to anfield massive in an slot's first season they obviously beat them in the 2022 final as well you've got to repeat as carve mentioned of the 2023 final between Man City and Inter Milan you've got a repeat of last year's final as well between Dortmund and Real Madrid but Liverpool out of all the English sides probably have the hardest draw look there's a more even spread of fixtures this time around but they're playing shabby Alonzo's bar Leverkusen who went 52 games unbeaten last year PR losing in the Europa League final they're also going away to RB leig there's some huge ties involving PSG as well Inter Milan playing both Man City and Arsenal so it should be a a pretty glorious spectacle I can't wait for it to get going yeah it's not all about the money is it as well just the whole league phase again I'm not being cynical at all you're laughing but I'm not trying to I mean it's you're not won over by this new new format you I think I am I think I am but with the Jeopardy word it was key like I say in their explainer and I do quite like that we see you know a big game immediately we've got Real Madrid against Liverpool I'm looking forward to that one already so I see what they're trying to do but I guess it 36 teams it's champions league is it still the Champions League well I think it's still is the Champions League I mean you made the point about money is this all to do with money have UFA change the format so clubs get more money for taking part yes is a simple answer clubs taking part I think are going to get about 20% more money so on average uh English clubs last season got about 80 million pound for taking part in the competition I think going forward next season they'll probably get around1 million pound so it is to do with money but it's also to do with making the competition more exciting I think quite a lot of these foreign owners who've come into European football have sat down and gone when it comes to European competition why are we not playing Real Madrid and Barcelona and Juventus and PSG every week why are we playing all these obscure teams that we haven't heard of and I think that is one of the reasons why they wanted to break away and form a European Super league and I think in response to that UEFA had to change the Champions League to almost make it its own version of a European super league and actually in that film there was a little joke where Zlatan mentioned uh the European super league and the U for president cheffin was like hey don't use that phrase in front of me yes as you might imagine okay brilliant from me thank you very much