The Portuguese champs find out their eight opponents

Manchester City FC (home), RB Leipzig (away), Club Brugge KV (away), Arsenal FC (home), Lille OSC (home), PSV Eindhoven (away), Bologna FC 1909 (home) and SK Sturm Graz (away) are the opponents drawn for the Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League, which has undergone an overhaul in format this season.

The draw, which also featured several changes, took place late on Thursday afternoon, at the Grimaldi Forum, in Monaco.

Although the opponents and the venues for the matches have already been established, the final calendar with the order of the rounds, the dates of the fixtures and their respective times will be made public on Saturday, August 31st, to avoid possible incompatibilities between competitions.

What is certain is that the European campaign will begin between September 17th and 19th, while the eighth and final game is scheduled for January 29th, 2025.

After participating in the competition in 2022/23, Rúben Amorim's side are back involved as Liga Portugal's reigning champions, and are among the 36 teams that will inaugurate the new competitive format.

To comply with the new parameters, the draw was left to an automated system - after each club's ball was manually removed from its respective pot - and an algorithm assigned the eight opponents to each team.

The main change sees the introduction of single league stage which, under a points system, brings together all participating clubs in the same table. As a result of this change and the increase in the number of teams in the competition (from 32 to the current 36), this new edition of the UEFA Champions League will feature eight games for each team, before a move to two knockout rounds with sides from each of the four pots. The competition then moves on to the knockout stage proper.

To qualify directly, teams must finish the league phase among the top eight teams. In turn, the teams that finish between ninth and 24th will have to play a two-legged play-off to also secure a place in the 'Round of 16'. The last twelve teams (25th to 36th) will be eliminated not only from the UEFA Champions League, but also from all European competitions during the season, as there will no longer be a 'relegation' situation that takes sides into the UEFA Europa League.

SCHEDULE FOR THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:

Matchday 1: 17–19 September 2024
Matchday 2: 1/2 October 2024
Matchday 3: 22/23 October 2024
Matchday 4: 5/6 November 2024
Matchday 5: 26/27 November 2024
Matchday 6: 10/11 December 2024
Matchday 7: 21/22 January 2025
Matchday 8: 29 January 2025