Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa have learned their fates in the Champions League this season amid wild changes.
The old group stage format has been put away with one big league table introduced instead with 36 teams included.
Instead of six matches, clubs must now play eight to progress to the latter stages of the competition with the top eight qualifying while those placed from ninth to 24th enter a play-off round.
While it might appear to be more UEFA interference, the idea behind it is to stop pointless group stage matches and make every game important.
Liverpool have learned their Champions League fate
PA
It will also see the ‘bigger’ teams more likely to face one another early on – which has been seen already with some of the Premier League sides.
Liverpool will face Real Madrid at Anfield, as well as Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan, for example, and Arsenal will take on Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan and Monaco.
Manchester City will play PSG and Inter, too, as well as French side Monaco.
Aston Villa have some tasty ties, as well, taking on Celtic, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund.
Elsewhere, Barcelona will play Bayern Munich and Dortmund while PSG, as well as Arsenal and City, face Munich too and Atletico Madrid in a tough draw.
JUST IN: Jermaine Jenas makes BBC accusation after sacking – ‘I wasn’t allowed’
The first round of Champions League fixtures will go ahead next month, though the ordering of the matches will not be decided until Saturday.
However, the extra fixtures will add further strain on an already congested calendar of football with the ‘league’ phase of the Champions League now set to stretch into January.
In years gone by, the group stage was usually finalised by early December with knockout matches starting in February.
Arsenal have some tough Champions League games
PA
Now the European fixtures appear to happen all season round.
Full draw for Premier League sides are as follows.
Arsenal – PSG (home), Inter Milan (away), Shakhtar Donetsk (home), Atalanta (away), Dinamo Zagreb (home), Sporting Lisbon (away), Monaco (home), Girona (away).
LATEST SPORTS NEWS:
Aston Villa are taking part in the Champions League this year
PA
Aston Villa – Bayern Munich (home), Leizpig (away), Juventus (home), Club Bruges (away), Celtic (home), Young Boys (away), Bologna (home) and Monaco (away).
Liverpool – Real Madrid (home), Leipzig (away), Bayer Leverkusen (home), AC Milan (away), Lille (home), PSV (away), Bologna (home) and Girona (away).
Manchester City – Inter Milan (home), PSG (away), Club Bruges (home), Juventus (away), Feyenoord (home), Sporting Lisbon (away), Sparta Prague (home), Slovan Bratislava (away).