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The return of the UEFA Champions League is a key feature in mid-September, but this season’s edition of the competition has new layers of intrigue.
When the action finally begins on Tuesday, it will be as a new tournament under the Swiss system, with a league stage instead of a group stage. The league phase this week will feature more teams, more matches, another match day and hopefully more competitiveness and chaos over the course of the coming months. While it may take a few weeks to find out if the new format lives up to the hype, Matchday 1 comes with a host of entertaining matches and a wide range of storylines to follow.
For teams as successful as reigning champions Real Madrid, relative newcomers like Aston Villa and everyone in between, this week’s action offers a chance to make a lasting first impression. That’s especially true in the new format, which requires strong performances from Matchday 1. Look no further than Inter’s trip to Manchester City on Wednesday, one of several high-profile encounters set to take place across the league stage.
Once again, CBS Sports will be the destination of choice for this season’s edition of the Champions League. Before the action starts, here’s what you need to know ahead of a brand new season of Europe’s top club competition.
How to watch
Biggest+ will feature every minute of Champions League action on matchday 1, including the Golazo Show, a spectacle show with highlights from every match. CBS Sports Network also shows UEFA Champions League Today’s pre- and post-match shows for matchday 1, as well as some selected matches. CBS Sports Golazo Network will continue its coverage after the UEFA Champions League Today post-match show wraps up and will wrap things up on Tuesday with the return of Kickin’ It, the interview show hosted by Kate Abdo, Charlie Davies, Clint Dempsey and Maurice Edu . This week’s guest is World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero, who is joining the Champions League broadcasting team as a sideline reporter this season.
Matchday 1 TV schedule
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Storylines for Matchday 1
1. Hello, new format
It’s rare for an administrative decision to almost overshadow the actual action on the pitch, but UEFA’s updated format is changing the Champions League as we know it and could be the competition’s biggest talking point come mid-winter.
At first glance, the move to the Swiss-based tournament may appear to fulfill the promise of offering more high-stakes matchups earlier in the season. Perhaps the main event of matchday 1 will be a match between two national champions, Manchester City and Inter. It will serve as an early test of City’s status as one of the favorites to win the whole game, especially as some suggest this is the case. a foregone conclusion that they or Real Madrid will lift the title next spring. Another match with similar stakes is Liverpool’s visit to AC Milan, where the Reds will hope to bounce back from their first defeat to Arne Slot this weekend and Milan will look to reverse course after a disappointing start to the season.
However, the context in which we now judge these matchups has also changed. These teams are no longer competing for two places out of four in a group, but for 24 places out of 36 in the competition phase and against the best teams in Europe, with even more emphasis on reaching the top eight. It may be difficult to visualize the permutations at the end of Matchday 1, but with every team tied together in the league stage, the mental math leading up to the knockout stages could be more chaotic than ever before.
2. Kylian Mbappé joins Real Madrid’s title defense
New format or not, there is no reason to doubt Real Madrid as favorites to win the competition for the second season in a row. The team from last season’s triumph is largely intact. The notable exception to the rule is post-retirement Toni Kroos, but they did bring in the biggest signing of the summer: Kylian Mbappe. His signing, combined with an already star-studded squad including Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo, means expectations are high for Carlo Ancelotti. However, there is an extra weight on Mbappe, who is considered Lionel Messi’s heir apparent as the greatest player currently playing the game. He won the World Cup at the age of 19, but his seven-year spell at Paris Saint-Germain did not lead him to the Champions League glory that he is now undoubtedly seeking in Madrid, where he will be playing in a dressing room full of Champions League winners. the European top club prize.
With a new Galacticos team, many will still expect Mbappe to create an individual legacy, even as he shares the spotlight with a handful of the game’s top stars. Understandably, it still feels like Mbappe is still in an adjustment period, even if four goals in six games is nothing to scoff at. Real Madrid also appear to be slowly finding form after two draws in their first five La Liga games this season, but the European champions benefited from a sense of inevitability in an imperfect run to the title last season. With the group aiming to be on the right track sooner or later this season, all eyes will be on Mbappe to see if he too can perform alongside his new team.
3. Is Barcelona the real deal?
While most of Europe’s top teams are exactly where you’d expect them to be at this early stage of the season, a perennially chaotic Barcelona are on course for a surprisingly strong start to their first season under manager Hansi Flick. They have a perfect five wins out of five in La Liga, the only team in Spain’s top flight with that record, and sit top of the league after scoring seventeen goals and conceding just four.
The immediate question facing Barcelona at this point is how long they can keep the winning streak going, which they could extend to six as favorites against Monaco on Thursday. That remains the case even though their big summer signing, Euro champion Dani Olmo, could miss the Champions League match after picking up a hamstring injury this weekend. However, his club and compatriot Lamine Yamal steals the show. He now has three goals and four assists to start the season and could be key to Barcelona’s attempts to remain competitive with Real Madrid despite haphazard squad building and financial problems.