UEFA Champions League: Liverpool and Aston Villa kick-off this new era for European club football

EUROPE’S top club tournament is back for another year but this time, it looks a little different with more teams and a completely different road to the final in Munich next May.

The action starts this Tuesday as the first round of UEFA Champions League fixtures kick off, including Liverpool and Aston Villa’s first games of the competition.

Arne Slot’s Liverpool face a tough task away to AC Milan in the San Siro at 8pm, with the Reds coming in off the back of a shock defeat to Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

Milan, however, are struggling early on in the Serie A season, managing their first win of the season at the fourth time of asking against Venezia at home at the weekend.

Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side start their first season back in the European big time since the 1982/83 season when they were beaten in the quarter-final stage by Juventus 5-2 over two legs.

The Claret and Blues take on the Swiss side Young Boys in Bern at 5.45pm to give them a relatively soft reintroduction into the Champions League stage.

Aston Villa will hope for a less dramatic affair than their 3-2 win over Everton at Villa Park on Saturday when Jhon Durán’s long range effort completed a comeback win for the home side.

Where can I watch the Liverpool or Aston Villa game?

You can watch the Liverpool game on Amazon Prime with a Prime Video subscription as they show ‘Tuesday’s Must-Watch match’, which is Liverpool’s showdown with Milan this week.

Aston Villa’s game can be watched on TNT Sports, which is available via a Discovery+ subscription.

What other Champions League games of interest are on this week?

On Wednesday, Celtic take on Slovan Bratislava at Parkhead for their first game of the new season, Manchester City face a rematch of one of the greatest days in the club’s history when they play Inter Milan at the Etihad. The two sides met in the 2023 Champions League final which City won 1-0 to complete the treble.

Celtic, the Scottish Champions and European champions of 1967, will go into this game on the back of a 2-0 win against Edinburgh side Hearts.

City will face a tough challenge in their opener with Inter placing second in Serie A after four matches, however, the San Siro-based side could only manage a draw against Monza away from home on Sunday.

Guardiola’s side won their game against Brentford at home at the weekend, 2-1 thanks to a Haaland double as the Norweigan continued his stellar scoring form.

The Champions League continues through to Thursday this season, which had been the traditional slot for the UEFA Europa League in recent years.

This Thursday’s games include Arsenal’s opening game away to Europa League champions Atalanta of Italy and Barcelona’s trip to Monaco.

Arsenal’s 1-0 away win in the first North London derby of the season will give them a pep in their step going into their opening Champions League game against Atalanta, who surprised everyone and overcame last year’s unbeatable Bayer Leverkusen to win the Europa League in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium thanks to an Ademola Lookman hat-trick.

What is the new UEFA Champions League format?

The Champions League’s format has changed from eight four-team groups to one 36-team league phase that will decide who will progress to the knockouts.

The top eight teams in the league will automatically qualify for the round of 16 and teams from ninth to 24th place, play off for the remaining eight spots.

From then on in, it’s business as usual, with quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.

Where will the UEFA Champions League final be this year?

The Champions League final will be in Munich’s Allianz Arena, home of FC Bayern Munich.

The last time the final was held here was the 2012 final when Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties after a late Didier Drogba header snatched the win away from the German giants.