Discover the rivals of PSG, AS Monaco, Lille and Brest

The four French clubs know their Champions League opponents after the draw on Thursday 29 August. For this new season, the formula of the prestigious European Cup has changed radically.

Gone are the eight groups of four, now a single group of 36 clubs with matches starting on 17 September and lasting until 29 January. Each team will face eight others in the first phase, four home games and four away. Find out which clubs the French clubs will face:

• HE Paris Saint GermainThe reigning French champions will face Manchester City, Atlético de Madrid, PSV Eindhoven and Girona at home, and Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Salzburg and Stuttgart away.
• on your side AS Monaco will face FC Barcelona, ​​Benfica, Red Star Belgrade and Aston Villa at home; and will play away against Inter Milan, Arsenal, Dinamo Zagreb and Bologna.
• For the first time in this competition, the Brest Stadium – who will play their matches in Guingamp – will face Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, PSV Eindhoven and Sturm Graz at home; and away from home FC Barcelona, ​​Shaktar Donetsk, Salzburg and Sparta Prague.
• HE Lille Olympic Sports Club (LOSC) will play at home against Real Madrid, Juventus, Feyenoord Rotterdam and Sturm Graz; and away against Liverpool, Atlético de Madrid, Sporting Portugal and Bologna.

More posters for more prizes

The stated aim of this new Champions League formula: to offer more major team duels and to increase prize money. At the end of this initial phase (from 17 September to 29 January), the top eight teams will directly qualify for the 8th round.^my final, the qualified teams of the 9^my at 24^my place competing for the last eight tickets during the two-legged play-offs.

Given the complexity of such a draw, which would have taken three hours if it had to be done entirely by hand, UEFA hired the services of two companies to automate the procedure. AE Live, a sports data specialist, provided software that determined live the eight opponents of the club whose ball was manually selected from one of the four bowls placed on the stage. The computer had to respect two criteria: a team may not play against a resident of its own championship or face more than two representatives of the same league.

Asked about suspicions of manipulation and threats of hacking, UEFA was reassuring. “Everyone knows that integrity is very important to us. The facts speak for themselves, people are free to trust us or not. UEFA never intervened in the development of the AE Live codes”said Giorgio Marchetti, deputy secretary general of the European Confederation, on Wednesday.