League Phase: How it works

With European Football just around the corner, take a look at how the League Phase works in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League.

Football Clubs from across the continent of Europe are set to go toe to toe for glory across three highly prestigious competitions in the form of the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, and the UEFA Conference League.

The Champions League is the first to get underway, with matches starting on Tuesday 17th September. The four English clubs entering European Football’s Premier Club Cup Competition are Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, and finally Aston Villa. The first three are regulars in this competition, whereas Villa are in Europe’s top tier competition for the first time in more than 40 years.

The Europa League then starts a week later on Thursday 25th September, and the two clubs to have qualified for this competition from England are Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs and Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United.

Finally, this season’s UEFA Conference League is the last to get underway, with the first round of matches in this year’s competition starting on Wednesday 2nd October. Chelsea is the sole English participant in 2024/25.

With there being a new format for each of these competitions, we thought that we would explain how the new League Phase will work from this season onwards.

To start with the number of teams participating in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League have expanded from 32 to 36 teams. This of course means more games and more of the best teams in Europe going head to head for passage into the next round.

The Champions League and Europa League’s League Phases work the same way. Clubs in both competitions will be playing eight matches, four at home and four away from home, with the top eight at the end of the League Phase advancing automatically to the Round of 16.

The clubs that finish from 9th to 24th in the table are still in the competition, but each club will have to battle for a place in the next round in a play-off phase, where the winners of each tie progress alongside the top eight into the Round of 16.

As for the teams ranked from 25th to 36th, they will be knocked out. In the old Group Stage, the teams in third would drop down to the Europa League, in the new League Phase, if you are knocked out, you are out of Europe entirely, at least for the remainder of the season.

This increases the stakes for each club, and there are sure to be even more enthralling matches to come in this season’s UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

The UEFA Conference League is the same as the rest in terms of the number of teams that go through to the Round of 16 automatically, to the play-offs, and the same number of clubs will be knocked out of the competition completely.

There are however slight differences. In the Conference League, each time will have six fixtures each, three at home and three away from home.

Following the conclusion of the league phase, each competition will then revert to the traditional knockout format right up until the Final.

Below are the English Clubs taking part in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League alongside their fixtures for the League Phase:

Arsenal: Atalanta (A – 19th Sept), Paris Saint-Germain (H – 1st Oct), Shakhtar Donetsk (H – 22nd Oct), Inter Milan (A – 6^th Nov), Sporting CP (A – 26th Nov), AS Monaco (H – 11th Dec), Dinamo Zagreb (H – 22nd Jan), and Girona (A – 29^th Jan).

Aston Villa: Young Boys (A – 17th Sept), Bayern Munich (H – 2nd Oct), Bologna (H – 22nd Oct), Club Brugge (A – 6th Nov), Juventus (H – 27th Nov), RB Leipzig (A – 10th Dec), AS Monaco (A – 21st Jan), and Celtic (H – 29th Jan).

Liverpool: AC Milan (A – 17th Sept), Bologna (H – 2nd Oct), RB Leipzig (A – 23rd Oct), Bayer Leverkusen (H – 5th Nov), Real Madrid (H – 27th Nov), Girona (A – 10th Dec), Lille (H – 21st Jan), and PSV Eindhoven (A – 29th Jan).

Manchester City: Inter Milan (H – 18th Sept), Slovan Bratislava (A – 1st Oct), Sparta Prague (H – 23rd Oct), Sporting CP (A – 5^th Nov), Feyenoord (H – 26^th Nov), Juventus (A – 11th Dec), Paris Saint-Germain (A – 22^nd Jan), and Club Brugge (H – 29^th Jan).

As mentioned earlier, the two English clubs who are involved in the 2024/25 UEFA Europa League’s League Phase this season are Spurs and Manchester United. Their fixtures can be found below:

Manchester United: FC Twente (H – 25th Sept), FC Porto (A – 3rd Oct), Fenerbahce (A – 24th Oct), PAOK (H – 7th Nov), Bodo/Glimt (H – 28th Nov), Viktoria Plzen (A – 12th Dec), Rangers (H – 23rd Jan), and Steaua Bucuresti (A – 30th Jan).

Spurs: Qarabag (H – 26th Sept), Ferencvaros (A – 3rd Oct), AZ Alkmaar (H – 24th Oct), Galatasaray (A – 7th Nov), Roma (H – 28th Nov), Rangers (A – 12th Dec), Hoffenheim (A – 23rd Jan), and Elfsborg (H – 30th Jan).

Finally, Chelsea are the only English Club to be participating in the UEFA Conference League this season, and their League Phase Fixtures are as follows:

Chelsea: Gent (H – 3rd Oct), Panathinaikos (A – 24th Oct), Noah (H – 7th Nov), Heidenheim (A – 28th Nov), Astana (A – 12th Dec), and Shamrock Rovers (H – 19th Dec).

Excitement and anticipation are now building rapidly ahead of the start of continental football, starting with the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday 17th September 2024.

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