Tomorrow, Tuesday, the UEFA Champions League football tournament will start in its new format, after 6 years of planning.
The new edition of the Champions League will be held under a new system, with 36 teams participating in the competition instead of 32 teams, and each team is scheduled to play eight matches (four matches at home and four away).
The biggest change that the tournament will witness is the cancellation of the group stage, and holding it in a league system with one group with the participation of 36 teams.
The first 8 teams will advance directly to the round of 16, while the teams that finished the league in places from ninth to 24 will play in a play-off to qualify for the round of 16, where the eight winning teams from the play-off advance to the round of 16, and from the round of 16 the knockout stages will be played, with the winner qualifying for the next round.
In contrast, the teams that occupy the positions from 25th to the last are eliminated from European competitions and will not move to the lower tournament, as was the case in the past.
The tournament will start with 6 matches tomorrow, Tuesday, the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Real Madrid will begin their title defence tomorrow, Tuesday, when they face German guest Stuttgart.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams in the Champions League, and Real Madrid hopes to make a good start, to gain confidence in order to win the 16th title in its history.
Real Madrid had beaten Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the final of the last edition in June.
Stuttgart will be the 16th German team Real Madrid will face in the competition.
The advantage will be for the Merengue, especially since it lost only one match out of the last 21 matches in which it faced a German team, and achieved victory in 14 matches.
Real Madrid, led by Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, enters the match after achieving a 2-0 victory over host Real Sociedad, to extend the team’s unbeaten streak to six matches this season in all competitions.
Stuttgart will not be an easy competitor for the Royal Battalion, especially since it presented amazing performances last season, which made it occupy second place in the German League (Bundesliga), ahead of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
Stuttgart have not won any of their six matches against Spanish clubs in the Champions League, drawing two and losing four.
Stuttgart enter the match buoyed by their 3-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, their first league win of the season.
In another classic encounter, Milan will clash with its guest Liverpool at the San Siro stadium, in a confrontation between the two teams in the final matches of 2005 and 2007.
The two teams, who have previously won the title, will play their first match in the new edition of the Champions League with new coaches, as Liverpool is led by Arne Slot, while Milan is coached by Paulo Fonseca.
Liverpool head to the San Siro with four wins from their last five away games against Italian sides in the Champions League, but were knocked out of last season’s Europa League at the quarter-final stage by Atalanta.
The Reds also enter the match looking to improve their image, after suffering their first loss in the league, by a clean goal, at the hands of Nottingham Forest.
While Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the season, Milan recovered in their fourth Serie A game, scoring their first ever win at Venezia with a 4-0 win, having failed to pick up full points in any of their first three Serie A games under Paulo Fonseca, picking up just two points in that period.
German giants Bayern Munich, who are participating in the Champions League for the 17th consecutive time, host Dinamo Zagreb at the Allianz Arena.
Bayern, who have won the Champions League six times, failed to win any silverware last season, but have started this campaign well, while Dinamo Zagreb are once again top of the Croatian table.
Bayern Munich have appeared in the group stage 17 times in a row, qualifying for the round of 16 on each occasion, and have a great record in the first stage of the tournament.
Bayern were unbeaten in 40 group stage games and had won 17 in a row before a home draw with Copenhagen last season.
The club’s management contracted with Vincent Kompany to lead and rebuild the team, succeeding Thomas Tuchel, and so far Kompany has led the Bavarian team to win four consecutive matches in all competitions.
Dinamo Zagreb have met Bayern Munich twice before in the Champions League, both times in 2015, with Bayern winning both.
In the rest of the matches that will also be held on Tuesday, Juventus of Italy will meet PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, Young Boys of Switzerland will meet Aston Villa of England, and Sporting Lisbon of Portugal will meet Lille of France.