Man City 2025/26 Champions League fixtures: Opponents revealed as Kevin De Bruyne makes return | OneFootball

Manchester City will be hoping for improved results in this season’s Champions League as a new-look squad returns to the competition.

Pep Guardiola’s side will once again face Real Madrid - having been knocked out by their old rivals last season - while Kevin De Bruyne will make a return to the Etihad with Italian champions Napoli.

City finished 22nd in the inaugural Champions League league phase last season, scraping through to a knockout play-off only on the final match-day.

With De Bruyne departing over the summer and the likes of Tijjani Reijnders and Ryan Cherki arriving, Guardiola will expect his team to go much further this time.

Man City’s Champions League draw

Dortmund (H)

Real Madrid (A)

Leverkusen (H)

Villarreal (A)

Napoli (H)

Bodo/Glimt (A)

Galatasaray (H)

AS Monaco (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.