Ahead of tomorrow's UEFA Champions League draw taking place tomorrow evening, here is all you need to know when it comes to record winners Real Madrid.
Although Real Madrid are the record UEFA Champions League winners, having won more than double the amount of titles as the team in second place, it has been a disappointing couple of years in Europe, with back to back quarter final exits.
For the enormous standards of the club, it has been a bit of a disappointing era in general, winning the competition just twice in the past eight years, with a number of disappointing exits in that time, such as the round of 16 humiliation at home to Ajax.
So, there is a hope that Jose Mourinho can help bring the coveted trophy back to the Bernabeu. Although he did not win the competition during his first spell in charge, he made the team much more competitive, with consistent round of 16 exits becoming semi final campaigns instead, with many crediting the manager with laying the foundations for the era that was about to come.
Plus, as we know, the 63-year old has won the competition twice before, once with Porto and once with Inter Milan, the latter of which was won at the Bernabeu, in his final game in charge before becoming Real Madrid manager, an incredibly poetic ending.
The new Champions League campaign will soon start again, with the league phase beginning in the autumn. Here is all you need to know ahead of tomorrow's draw, which is set to take place at around 18:00 CET.
Since the 2024/25 season, a league phase, Swiss model system has replaced the group stage that always used to take place. There are now be eight games instead of six.The top eight teams will automatically qualify for the knockout stage, with the following 16 teams battling it out against each other in a two legged play off.
Each team will play four games at home, and four away. It is not necessarily home, away, home, away - sometimes you will play two consecutive home games and two straight away games. You cannot be drawn against a team in your own country.
Also, a third consecutive league phase fixture cannot be drawn. For example, Real Madrid cannot be drawn against Liverpool at Anfield. However, they can be drawn at home to the Premier League side.
The higher you finish, the better advantage you have in the knockouts. If you get drawn against a team that finished below you in the league phase, you will get the second leg at home. However, it can change.
For example, if you finish fourth, and play a team that finished seventh, but that said team knocked out a team that finished third, they take that home advantage and it will be used against your team.
To finish things off, Real Madrid will be in pot 1 for the draw, alongside PSG, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. They cannot play either of the last two teams, but will play two of the previous six.
