Actual Madrid will uncover their eight opponents within the 2026-27 Champions League league section on Thursday, with the draw doubtlessly including one other chapter to a number of the membership’s most enduring European rivalries.
This would be the third season of UEFA’s 36-team league format, which changed the standard group stage in 2024. Actual Madrid will play eight totally different opponents — 4 on the Santiago Bernabéu and 4 away — between the opening matchdays on September 8-10 and the ultimate, simultaneous spherical on January 27, 2027.
There are a number of restrictions constructed into the draw. Golf equipment can not face groups from their very own home league through the league section and might be paired with not more than two opponents from another nation. Which means Madrid can’t be drawn in opposition to Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Villarreal or Actual Betis, the opposite Spanish representatives on this season’s competitors.
UEFA’s automated draw system will in the end be answerable for producing the 144 league-phase fixtures whereas respecting these restrictions.
There’s additionally a brand new wrinkle this season regarding repeat fixtures. UEFA’s laws stop the identical two golf equipment from taking part in on the similar venue within the league section for 3 consecutive seasons.
That’s significantly related for Actual Madrid and Liverpool.
Madrid have travelled to Anfield in every of the primary two seasons underneath the league-phase format. Ought to Liverpool and Actual Madrid be paired collectively once more on Thursday, the fixture would subsequently should be performed on the Bernabéu moderately than Anfield.
The rule is designed to introduce extra selection into the competitors and forestall the expanded league section from producing precisely the identical matchups on the similar venues yr after yr.
Liverpool are solely one in every of a number of acquainted names Madrid may encounter. Manchester Metropolis, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are among the many golf equipment with in depth Champions League historical past in opposition to Los Blancos.
Few rivalries have developed as quickly as Madrid’s with Manchester Metropolis.
The golf equipment didn’t meet in European competitors till the 2012-13 season, however have already performed 17 occasions. Metropolis have appeared on Madrid’s Champions League schedule in every of the previous 5 editions and 6 of the final seven.
That has made Manchester Metropolis the third-most frequent opponent Actual Madrid have confronted in European Cup historical past. Madrid’s report throughout these 17 video games stands at seven victories, 5 attracts and 5 defeats, with 30 objectives scored and 27 conceded.
Metropolis have already overtaken two historic Madrid opponents by way of conferences: AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund, who’ve every confronted Los Blancos 16 occasions within the competitors.
Madrid’s historical past with Milan stretches all the best way again to the inaugural European Cup in 1956, when the groups met within the semi-finals, whereas Dortmund have repeatedly crossed paths with Madrid within the fashionable Champions League period. Their most important latest assembly got here within the 2024 last at Wembley, the place Madrid defeated Dortmund to safe their fifteenth European Cup.
Juventus sit above all three.
Actual Madrid and the Italian giants have met 22 occasions in European competitors, together with two finals. Madrid gained each: the 1998 last in Amsterdam and the 2017 last in Cardiff.
However even that rivalry falls in need of essentially the most continuously performed fixture in Actual Madrid’s European historical past.
Actual Madrid and Bayern Munich have met 30 occasions.
The rivalry spans half a century, starting with their 1976 European Cup semi-final and most not too long ago persevering with with final season’s Champions League quarter-final. The report may scarcely be nearer: Madrid and Bayern have every gained 13 of the 30 conferences, with 4 attracts. Madrid have scored 49 objectives to Bayern’s 48.
The Germans had the higher hand in the latest installment. Bayern gained 2-1 on the Bernabéu within the first leg of the 2025-26 quarter-finals earlier than a exceptional 4-3 victory in Munich accomplished a 6-4 combination elimination of Madrid.
Over time, the 2 golf equipment have encountered one another at nearly each stage of the competitors, together with the group stage, spherical of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals. The 1999-2000 marketing campaign was significantly uncommon: Madrid and Bayern met 4 occasions in the identical version earlier than Los Blancos finally went on to win their eighth European Cup.
Thursday’s draw may carry the rivalry again for a thirty first assembly.
Whether or not it’s Bayern, Metropolis, Juventus, Dortmund, Liverpool or a group of much less acquainted opponents, Madrid will quickly have their European roadmap for the primary half of the season.
And if Liverpool are amongst these eight names, there may be already one certainty: this time, the assembly will happen in Madrid.
