Three months after Real Madrid’s victory against Liverpool at the Stade de France, the Champions League is back on Tuesday September 6 and Wednesday September 7 with two big shocks for Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille. In the sister competitions, the other French clubs (Nantes, Rennes, Monaco and Nice) will follow on Thursday, September 8. Here is everything you need to know before this first day of the group stages.
PSG-Juve, Tottenham-OM, Bayern-Inter … Big posters in perspective
This group stage already promises great encounters. From Tuesday evening, Europe will have its eyes riveted on the Parc des Princes where PSG will host Juventus (group H) for the first of Christophe Galtier on the Parisian bench in C1. At the same time, Real Madrid, defending champion, will begin their campaign with the reception of Celtic (group F). Manchester City will go to Sevilla FC in Pool G.
The next day, the Marseillais of Igor Tudor will be in London to face Tottenham in group D. At the same time, Spanish football fans will be able, according to their tastes, to focus on FC Barcelona of Lewandowski, opposed to the Czechs of Viktoria Plzeň, or on a nice Atlético de Madrid-Porto during which Antoine Griezmann should once again come off the bench in the last half hour. In a boiling Maradona stadium, Naples and Liverpool should fight a good battle in Group A. Finally, the clash between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich will be an opportunity to observe Sadio Mané on the European scene with his new tunic .
Bring it on! #UCL || #UCLdraw pic.twitter.com/z9IBs4zdUA
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 25, 2022
In the Europa League, several meetings will also be worth watching. In Group E, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, still at Manchester United despite his desire to leave due to the club’s non-qualification in the Champions League, could be lined up on Thursday against Real Sociedad, within the reinvigorated Red Devils in Premier League. While the leader of the English championship, Arsenal, will be in Zürich. In addition to a Lazio-Feyenoord, purists will also be able to enjoy the Unionists’ duel between Saint-Gilles and Berlin.
French clubs to heal the UEFA coefficient
With the elimination of AS Monaco in the third preliminary round of the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven, France’s fifth place in the UEFA ranking (50,164) is highly threatened by the Netherlands (49,100). Reversed in C3, the Monegasques will therefore have to ensure on the ground of the Red Star of Belgrade. In the same way as Stade Rennes against the Cypriots of Larnaca and FC Nantes, which will receive Olympiakos for their return to Europe after 18 years of absence and an Intertoto Cup campaign in 2004. Winners of Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the play-off of the Europa League Conference, the Niçois will face Cologne at the Allianz Riviera.
When and on which channels to follow the matches?
The two Champions League matches between PSG and Marseille will be broadcast at 9 p.m. on the Canal+ group channels (Canal+ Foot on Tuesday evening for PSG, Canal+ Wednesday evening for Marseille) and on RMC Sport 1. The rest of the matches are broadcast by BeIN Sports, which owns all the rights to the competition.
Thursday evening, at 6.45 p.m., Nice-Cologne will be available on RMC Sport 1. Larnaca-Rennes will be simultaneously broadcast on RMC Sport 2. At 9 p.m., you will have to tune in to W9 or Canal+ Sport to watch the Nantes match, and on RMC Sport 1 for that of Monaco. The other C3 and C4 matches will be visible on the channels of the Altice group (RMC).