Champions League is back: Anfield gets Atlético, United get Azerbaijan

The Champions League league phase is back on 8 September, and the fixture computer has done that thing it always does: handed the neutrals a couple of proper nights, and handed Manchester United a gentle stroll against a team most of the country will be Googling. Matchday 1 runs from the 8th to the 10th, and the spice is very much not evenly distributed.

The one you’ll actually clear your evening for

Liverpool host Atlético Madrid at Anfield, and that is the tie of the round by a distance. Diego Simeone’s side do not do friendly. They foul, they niggle, they waste time with the enthusiasm most teams reserve for scoring, and they carry history at Anfield that still makes the Kop twitch. A European night, that noise, and Atléti’s particular brand of pantomime villainy is precisely the sort of evening the competition exists for. Circle it.

Spice for some, a lie-down for others

Arsenal get the next best thing: a trip to the Diego Armando Maradona and a wall of Neapolitan noise that can still unsettle an English side long before kick-off. Manchester City open away at Porto, no gift either, though their group only turns genuinely nasty later, once PSG and Barcelona are on the menu. And then there is Manchester United, back among Europe’s elite and drawn, gloriously, at home to Sabah FK of Azerbaijan. United’s idea of a spicy Champions League return is a fixture their own supporters will need to find on a map. Bless them.

Matchday 1 gives Liverpool a night with Atlético Madrid, and gives Manchester United a home game against a club most fans have never heard of. The fixture gods have jokes.

The dates, and the small print

The league phase spans eight matchdays from 8 September through to late January, with the knockout playoff round in February and the serious business rolling into spring. The heavyweight glamour ties the draw served up (City against PSG, City away at Barcelona, Arsenal versus Real Madrid) are being rationed across the later rounds like a streaming service that knows you’ll keep subscribing for one more episode. Matchday 1 is the appetiser. Just a very lopsided one.

So set a reminder for the 8th, pour something, and enjoy Anfield against Atlético. And spare a thought for the Manchester United supporter explaining to a colleague, with a completely straight face, exactly why they are this excited about Sabah.