Real Madrid opens Champions League 2024-25 against Inter Milan

September 8 is already circled in red on Real Madrid's calendar. That's the day the league phase of the 2024-25 Champions League begins, and Real Madrid, the tournament's reigning and all-time leading champion with 15 titles, will host none other than Inter Milan. A high-voltage opener to kick things off.

UEFA released the full schedule covering all eight matches for each of the 36 teams, just two days after the draw was held in Monaco. And as usually happens with these fixture lists, there's a bit of everything: historic clashes, scheduling quirks, and at least one trip that promises to be a real odyssey.

The opening round actually gets underway a bit earlier than usual, with two matches kicking off ahead of the rest: Club Brugge hosting Aston Villa and AEK Athens facing Austria's LASK, the competition's newcomer, both starting at 6:45 p.m. Central European Time. A day later, PSG, the defending champion, opens at home against Slovan Bratislava, coached by Yaya Toure, who becomes the first African coach to lead a team in the league phase. That same day, September 9, Liverpool will host Atletico Madrid, a repeat of the matchup that opened last season's campaign and ended 3-2 in favor of the English side at Anfield.

A demanding October full of curious twists

If there's one month promising headaches, it's October. Manchester City will host PSG on October 14, one of the marquee fixtures of the second round, played more than a month after the opener due to the new FIFA match calendar format. Just days later, on October 20, PSG will travel to face Barcelona at the Parc des Princes, and the very next day Bayern Munich will host Arsenal.

Barcelona, meanwhile, will have to make a long trip to Baku to face Azerbaijan's Sabah on November 25, before hosting Manchester City on December 8 at Camp Nou, or whichever stadium the club is using at the time.

Arsenal will host Real Madrid on December 9, the first of two scheduled trips to London this season for Jose Mourinho at the helm of Fenerbahce. Madrid will return to the English capital for the final round on January 27 to face Shakhtar Donetsk, who chose Stamford Bridge as the neutral venue for all four of their home matches. It's quite the coincidence: that's the very stadium where Mourinho won three Premier League titles.

Arctic chill and a simultaneous final round

The two Norwegian sides, Bodo/Glimt and Viking, will play host in January, right in the middle of the domestic offseason and amid the harshest of the Scandinavian winter. Bodo/Glimt will host Atletico Madrid on January 19 at their small stadium inside the Arctic Circle, and a day later Viking will host PSV Eindhoven in Stavanger.

The final round, on January 27, will see all 18 matches kick off at the same time, 9 p.m. Central European Time. Barcelona will close out its campaign against Como, coached by former Barca player Cesc Fabregas, while PSG travels to face Galatasaray, Arsenal hosts Sabah, and Bayern takes on Real Betis.

At the end of this league phase, the top eight finishers will advance directly to the round of 16 in March. Teams finishing between ninth and twenty-fourth will play a knockout playoff round in February to complete the bracket, while those finishing between 25th and 36th will be eliminated without further chances.