A new and revamped Champions League group stage gets underway this week, but Arsenal’s opening fixture – a visit to Atalanta – will unusually take place on a Thursday
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- The UEFA Champions League is back with a few big changes – including the days fixtures are played on.
Arsenal fans would have noticed that their first European match – a difficult away game in Italy against Europa League champions Atalanta – isn’t scheduled for the Tuesday or Wednesday spot that has become customary in the competition. Instead, the two sides will face off on Thursday evening.
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Fans of other clubs in the newly structured competition may be wondering if they’ll also have to watch their teams play on a Thursday – a day typically reserved for the Europa and Conference League. But that will not be the case.
As part of the new league format, governing body UEFA has declared that each of their three competitions will have an exclusive matchweek during which fixtures from the other two tournaments won’t take place. This exclusive window has been designated as matchweek 1 for the Champions League, meaning only UCL fixtures will be played this week.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have to wait until Thursday to play their first Champions League fixture (Image: Arsenal FC via Getty Images) UEFA have decided to spread the matches over three days instead of the usual two, so games will be played on Thursday. But this will only occur for this unique game week and won’t happen again. Both the Europa League and the Europa Conference League will also have allotted weeks where only their matches will be played.
The changes to the Champions League don’t stop there, however. As stated, teams will play eight group games, four at home and four away, though each of those ties will be against different teams.
Instead of the traditional eight groups of four, each team has been placed into a single league. The top eight finishers will automatically advance to the round of 16.