Arsenal Champions League fixtures revealed as Mikel Arteta’s side avoid nightmare draw in new format
ARSENAL have discovered their Champions League fate.
The Gunners will face eight different teams during the first phase of the new format.
Mikel Arteta‘s side have had a perfect start to the season beating both Wolves and Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Last year, the Gunners reached the quarter-final stage of the competition before being knocked out by Bayern Munich.
This term they will not be in the group stage as the tournament has changed for a new league format.
In the League phase, the Gunners will play pot one clubs Paris Saint-Germain at home and Inter Milan away.
From pot two, they will face Atalanta in Italy and Shakhtar Donetsk in the Emirates.
From pot three, the Gunners will take on Dinamo Zagreb at home and Sporting Lisbon away.
The Emirates will host Monaco from pot four, and the final opponent will be LaLiga outfit Girona in Spain.
The dates of the matches will be confirmed on Saturday.
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After seeing the draw, Arsenal fans were full of optimism.
One posted: “I guess we will be easily winning all these games.”
New Champions League format
Each club will play eight matches in the opening phase – against seeded opposition, in a system designed to ensure that teams play opponents of similar difficulty.
The top eight teams in the “final” table will automatically go through to the last 16, where they will be joined by the eight play-off winners of ties between the sides placed ninth to 24th in the table.
Despite there being just eight matches in the opening phase, European matches will be spread over 10 midweek slots.
The new Champions League format also sees the implication of two additional qualifying spots.
They will be awarded to the nations that are top of the “country coefficient” chart each season.
A second wrote: “This is a decent draw. I’ll take it everyday and twice on a Sunday.”
A third commented: “So so easy.”
A fourth said: “Should be getting top 8 and a bye into the round of 16.”
Another added: “We are gonna top the league phase.”
Arsenal will be much happier than their Premier League rivals Liverpool.
The Reds have been handed a horror draw as they face the likes of Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, AC Milan and RB Leipzig.
Arsenal's Champions League fixtures
Here is a look at Arsenal's fixtures for the Champions League league phase...
- Paris Saint-Germain – H
- Inter Milan – A
- Shakhtar Donetsk – H
- Atalanta – A
- GNK Dinamo – H
- Sporting Lisbon – A
- AS Monaco – H
- Girona – A
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