This Thursday evening at 6 p.m., the 36 participants of the Champions League 2025/2026 will be gathered on the side of Monaco to find out their destiny with the draw for the competition. Among them, we will obviously find the three French clubs participating in the competition, namely the French champion and winner of the last Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain (1st), but also Olympique de Marseille (2nd) and AS Monaco (3rd). For its part, the OGC Nice (4th) was eliminated during the 3rd preliminary round by Benfica (2-0/2-0).
Paris Saint-Germain thanks to its coefficient, but also its status as a winner of the competition is found in the first hat with Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and FC Barcelona. For its return to the competition, Olympique de Marseille is found in hat 3 while AS Monaco is in hat 4. All the teams will play 8 games, 4 at home and 4 outside and will challenge two training by hat. The first day will take place between Tuesday 16 and Thursday, September 18, while the eighth day of the league phase will be held on Wednesday January 28 with a multiplex of 18 games.
Heavy to be expected for our French clubs
In specificities, it is impossible for two teams from the same country to compete. Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco will therefore not be able to meet before the direct elimination phase. In addition, as last season, the ball of each team will be drawn before automated software attributes its opponents to it. And the tray will be very interesting again. In hat 1, it will obviously be wary of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Liverpool. Hat 2 will be made up of Arsenal which was semi-finalist of the last edition, but also of Atlético de Madrid and Juventus.
For hat 3, Tottenham winner of the last Europa League and Naples, the Italian champion, will be the big songs, as well as Newcastle, Bilbao and Galatasaray in hat 4. As for more lenient prints, we can think of Borussia Dortmund in hat 1 and to a lesser extent inter Milan. For hat 2, Villarreal, Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Bruges seem more affordable as well as Olympiakos, Slavia Prague and the Novice Bodo/Glimt in hat 3. Finally in hat 4, new Venus Pafos and Kairat Almaty will be interesting opponents for our French clubs even if in the case of the Kazakhstan club (which is located in Almost 6,800 kilometers from Paris), the distance from the journey may be bad news in the event of travel.
The 36 qualified
Hat 1: Paris Saint-Germain (France)Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester City (England), Bayern Munich (Germany), Liverpool (England), Inter Milan (Italy), Chelsea (England), Borussia Dortmund (Germany) and FC Barcelona (Spain)
Hat 2: Arsenal (England), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Atlético de Madrid (Spain), Benfica (Portugal), Atalanta (Italy), Villarreal (Spain), Juventus (Italy), Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany) and FC Bruges (Belgium)
Hat 3: Tottenham (England), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands), Naples (Italy), Sporting CP (Portugal), Olympiakos (Greece), Slavia Prague (Tchéquie), Bodo/Glimt (Norway) and Olympique de Marseille (France)
Hat 4: FC Copenhagen (Denmark), AS Monaco (France)Galatasaray (Türkiye), Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium), Qarabag (Azerbaijan), Athletic Club (Spain), Newcastle (England), Pafos (Cyprus) and Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan)
