Champions League and League Cup draws explained
Hands up who can't wait for Thursday's Champions League draw, with the Carabao Cup third round draw taking place on Wednesday night
Happy Tuesday!
How was your Bank Holiday weekend?
We had a lovely family BBQ on Monday, full of belly laughs and er, pork belly, among many other mouth-watering meats on our barbecue. It was wonderful. And the company wasn’t bad either.
Life gets so busy, which is why it’s so good to catch up, because time is precious, especially ahead of a long season on the road coming up.
Speaking of which, it’s the Champions League draw this week.
I, for one, can’t wait. If you love travel, and experiencing new places, while watching sport, football, and the Arsenal in particular, then Euro away days are for you.
If you throw in imbibing copious amounts of alcohol, in mostly convivial settings, socialising with pals, old and new, then a Euro trip is a no brainer.
Thursday’s 5pm draw can’t come soon enough.
And that’s without the vague anticipation of the entering the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening, in a competition Arsenal should have won far more times than the measly pair they picked up in 1987, and 1993 (went to both, and they still remain incredibly happy memories.
1988, 2007, 2011 and 2017 far less so.
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The draw for the group stages of the Champions League takes place on Thursday. CREDIT:
Champions League 2024-25: All you need to know including who Arsenal could face
With Mikel Arteta's Arsenal qualifying for the 2024-25 Champions League following an excellent season in which they once again finished Premier League runners-up to billionaire moneybags Manchester City, hopes are high that the Gunners can make serious progress during the forthcoming campaign.
It’s the second successive year Arteta has guided his side to the promised land of the world's richest club knock-out tournament, following a gap of long year seven years without qualifying.
However, how UEFA have altered the format of the tournament in a bid to admit more clubs into the competition.
Meaning Europe's governing body have scrapped the traditional eight groups of four approach that supporters have become accustomed to.
How does the new format work
There will now be a 36-team league phase, where all teams will be competing against each other in a single table.
Clubs will play eight matches in the new league phase, against eight different teams, split evenly between home and away games.
To determine the eight different opponents, teams will be ranked in four seeding pots, as has been the case for many years.
Each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of the pots, playing one match from each pot at home, and one away.
Who has qualified so far for the 2024-25 Champions League
We know 29 of the 36 teams who will be competing in the league stage, with the teams listed below earning their places through domestic league qualification:
England: Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Aston Villa
Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, Atletico Madrid
Germany: Bayer Leverkusen, Stuttgart, Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig
Italy: Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Atalanta
France: Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Brest
Netherlands: PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord
Portugal: Sporting Lisbon, Benfica
Belgium: Club Brugge
Scotland: Celtic
Austria: Sturm Graz
Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk (home games to be played in Gelsenkirchen, at Schalke 04's Veltins Arena)
In addition Bologna and Borussia Dortmund also qualified after Italy and Germany received an extra place after their club sides performed the best in UEFA tournaments last term.
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Who else could qualify
The last seven clubs will emerge after the second leg of this week’s play-off round, with Dinamo Zagreb, Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys and Galatasaray definitely featuring, after winning their domestic leagues.
The other 10 places in the play-offs will come after three qualification rounds.
Rangers, Slavia Prague, Red Bull Salzburg and Lille are all at that stage, where they await winning teams from previous rounds.
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Who could Arsenal face in the 2024-25 Champions League
Mikel Arteta's side will feature in Pot 2 due to our current UEFA coefficient ranking.
Which means the North Londoners will face a pair of the remaining seven teams in Pot 1:
Real Madrid
Bayern Munich
Paris Saint-Germain
Inter Milan
Borussia Dortmund
RB Leipzig
Barcelona
Plus two of these teams currently in Pot 2 alongside the Gunners
Bayer Leverkusen
Atletico Madrid
Atalanta
Juventus
Benfica
Club Brugge
Shakhtar Donetsk
AC Milan (*could drop into Pot 3)
The remaining qualified clubs will all be in either Pot 3 or Pot 4 depending on who joins them from the play-off round - with Arsenal facing two from each of those pots to make up our eight games.
Teams from the same nation cannot be drawn against each other - which means Arteta's Arsenal will avoid clashing with Man City, Liverpool and Aston Villa. Europa League
When will the draw be made?
The draw for the new 36-team league phase will take place on August 29, 2024 - the day after the completion of the final play-off matches.
When will the games take place?
Given that there are now two extra games to squeeze in an already crowded calendar, the league stage won't be completed until the end of January 2025.
From that point onwards, knockout games will be hosted every month until the end of May when the final will be held at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
Matchday 1: September 17–19, 2024
Matchday 2: October 1/2, 2024
Matchday 3: October 22/23, 2024
Matchday 4: November 5/6, 2024
Matchday 5: November 26/27, 2024
Matchday 6: December 10/11, 2024
Matchday 7: January 21/22, 2025
Matchday 8: January 29 2025
Knockout round play-offs: February 11/12 & 18/19, 2025
Round of 16: March 4/5 & 11/12, 2025
Quarter-finals: April 8/9 & 15/16, 2025
Semi-finals: April 29/30 & May 6/7, 2025
Final: May 31, 2025, Munich
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Carabao Cup draw explained
Arsenal will learn their opponents in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.
Mikel Arteta's side will find out who they will play in the third round of the Carabao Cup - even if the draw will be slightly different.
Arsenal said in a statement: "Due to the expansion of both the Champions League and the Europa League, two additional European matchweeks have been added to the calendar, which coincide with the Carabao Cup third round dates, which be staggered the weeks commencing Monday 16 and September 23."
The club added that to ensure there is no clash of fixture dates for teams playing in these competitions, two bowls will be used for the draw - bowl one will contain the six teams who have reached the Champions League and Europa League - including ourselves - while bowl two has the other 26 clubs.
This also means that Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Tottenham and ourselves cannot face each other in the third round.
Arsenal explained: "Those six teams will be pre-drawn to determine whether they’ll be at home or away for the third round, and slotted separately into the first six ties.
"Then when the main draw gets underway, teams from pot 2 will be paired with one European team to complete the first six ties, and then the remaining 10 will be drawn from the rest of the teams in pot 2."
This will only be the case for the third round - the rest of the competition will follow the traditional free-draw format.
The draw will take place on Wednesday evening, after Nottingham Forest v Newcastle United at the City Ground, and be shown live on Sky Sports.