Chelsea 2025/26 Champions League fixtures: Opponents revealed after tough draw | OneFootball

Chelsea make their return to the Champions League after a two-year absence and will play Barcelona and Bayern Munich in blockbuster ties following a summer of success on the European and world stage.

The Blues pipped Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa to a place in the Premier League’s top-five last season to confirm their automatic qualification for Europe’s top club competition.

But it was followed by Enzo Maresca’s side winning the Conference League and then triumphing at the Club World Cup, where they defeated European champions Paris Saint-Germain in the final.

The 2021 Champions League winners return to the competition with a completely different team to the one that last reached the quarter-finals in 2023, with Cole Palmer set to star in the tournament for the first time.

Chelsea have history in the Champions League against Barcelona and away to Bayern Munich, the teams they defeated on their way to the 2012 title, while the Blues will also face tough trips to Italy to play Atalanta and Antonio Conte’s Napoli.

Chelsea’s Champions League draw

Barcelona (H)

Bayern Munich (A)

Benfica (H)

Atalanta (A)

Ajax (H)

Napoli (A)

Pafos (H)

Qarabag (A)

When are Champions League fixtures released?

Scheduling the 36-team Champions League format, played across eight gameweeks from September to January, is a huge logistical challenge and therefore club’s fixtures and kick-off times have yet to be announced.

But Uefa has assured fans that the fixture list and kick-off times will be released no later than Saturday 30 August.

The league phase has 36 teams with every team handed eight games. The 36 teams are split into four pots of eight teams based on their Uefa coefficient, with the opponents generated by automated software.

The opponents then come from each pot, with two teams selected from each, one home and one away.

Teams cannot play another team from the same country and are not permitted to face more than two teams from one country.

Those finishing inside the top eight go straight into the last 16, then the next 16 teams advance to the play-off stage, with eight of those 16 teams progressing to the last 16.