The league phase of the Champions League starts on Tuesday. A new chapter of the "premier class" begins - with more lucrative matches and only one ranking list. blue Sport shows you all the matches live.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The newly created league phase of the Champions League gets underway on Tuesday. Milan welcome Liverpool for the opener, Stuttgart host Real Madrid and YB face Aston Villa.
- blue Sport will be showing all Champions League matches live.
In addition to YB, Juventus Turin will also kick off the Champions League early at 18:45 against Eindhoven. It is a return to the most important club competition for the Italians. They did not qualify a year ago.
The most interesting games on Tuesday are AC Milan - Liverpool and Real Madrid - VfB Stuttgart. Liverpool won an epic final against Milan in 2005. Back then, Liverpool overturned a 3-0 deficit and won on penalties. It was the highest-scoring Champions League (or Champions Cup) final since Benfica Lisbon beat Real Madrid 5-3 in 1962.
Two years later, in 2007, AC Milan took revenge on Liverpool. And Paulo Fonseca, Milan's coach, says what many of the big clubs are thinking: "I like the new format. We play Liverpool, Real Madrid and Leverkusen in the league phase. There was nothing like this before."
Stuttgart challenges Real
Real Madrid have won the Champions League six times in the last eleven years. In the spring, the Whites eliminated Bayern Munich in the semi-finals and defeated Borussia Dortmund in the final. The fact that they are now starting the new campaign against another Bundesliga club, VfB Stuttgart, is so fitting. Stuttgart's chances of success at the Bernabeu are unlikely to be huge, especially as Real have won all of their last 13 Champions League games. But: "Playing away against Real Madrid was at the top of our players' wish list," says Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeness.
More on the start of the Champions League
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