PSG gets tough slate of Champions League opponents. Real Madrid going to Liverpool and Almaty

MONACO (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain was handed a tough start to the defense of its Champions League title with games against Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and Thursday's draw also served up opponents from England and Spain from the pot of lowest-ranked teams.

PSG’s easiest opponents, in theory, in the league phase will be Newcastle and Athletic Bilbao.

Tottenham, the Europa League champion, also will play PSG in a repeat of their Super Cup game two weeks ago. PSG's eight-game schedule is completed by Bayer Leverkusen, Atalanta and Sporting Lisbon.

Real Madrid also got a challenging draw, including a trip far east to play Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan — 6,420 kilometers (4,000 miles) from the Spanish capital.

Record 15-time champion Madrid got two English opponents from the pot of highest-ranked teams. Madrid will host Manchester City, which it beat in the knockout playoffs last season, and return to Liverpool after losing 2-0 at Anfield in the league phase last year.

Madrid also will face Juventus in a repeat of its 2017 final win, and two French opponents, Marseille and Monaco — where superstar forward Kylian Mbappe started his career.

Liverpool fans will welcome Trent Alexander-Arnold back to Anfield with Madrid, and have away trips to the vibrant stadiums of Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Marseille and Galatasaray.

Bayern Munich will have rematches of two recent finals – at home to Chelsea where the German champion lost the 2012 title game on home turf, and away to PSG, which it beat in the 2020 final. Bayern also will go to Cyprus to face Pafos.

Manchester City will travel north of the Arctic Circle to face Bodo/Glimt of Norway, and host former fan favorite Kevin De Bruyne with his new club Napoli.

Inter Milan, which lost two of the last three finals, will host the top two teams in the Premier League last season, Liverpool and Arsenal. Inter beat Arsenal at the San Siro last season.

Kairat also will host Club Brugge, Olympiakos and Pafos. The team also must travel four time zones west to play at Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon.

Bodo/Glimt also will host Juventus, Tottenham and Monaco.

Qarabag in Azerbaijan is another long-haul trip east to Baku for Chelsea, Eintracht, Ajax and Copenhagen.

This is the second season of the league phase format with 36 teams playing eight different opponents on a weighted schedule through January, and ranked in a single-standings table.

Four newcomers to the main stage of the Champions League are: Bodo/Glimt, Kairat Almaty, Russian-owned Pafos and Belgian champion Union Saint-Gilloise.

Games in Bodo and Almaty shape to be the longest-ever trips for visiting teams, and their home games in January among the coldest in competition history. Bodo plays on a heated artificial turf field.

The computerized draw gave each team two opponents drawn from each of the four seeding pots. Teams are seeded based on their ranking over five seasons of results in UEFA competitions.

Retired great Zlatan Ibrahimovic picked each team out of its draw pot and former Ballon d'Or winner Kaka pushed a button to reveal the slate of opponents.

Games start on Sept. 16 and the final league phase matchday is Jan. 28. On that Wednesday evening, all 36 teams play in 18 games kicking off at the same time.

The top eight teams in the final standings advance to the round of 16 in March. Joining them will be winners of eight knockout playoffs, featuring teams ranked ninth to 24th, scheduled in February. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.

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The stage is illuminated during the Champions League soccer league phase draw in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

The stage is illuminated before the start of the Champions League soccer league phase draw in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Former soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic displays Club Brugge during the Champions League soccer league phase draw in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

From left: Former soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, UEFA Deputy General Secretary Giorgio Marchetti and former Brazilian player Kaka attend the Champions League soccer league phase draw in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

The Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights added an offensive element to their blue line by acquiring defenseman Rasmus Andersson in a trade Sunday with the Calgary Flames.

In parting ways with a player eligible to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, the Flames acquired veteran defenseman Zach Whitecloud, defensive prospect Abram Wiebe, a conditional first-round pick in the 2027 draft and a conditional second-rounder in 2028. The Flames also agreed to retain 50% of the remainder of Andersson’s salary in the final season of a six-year, $27.3 million contract.

“To be able to get it done with Vegas, they were willing to do it and do it without a contract because that was one thing that was made clear to us just in the last, maybe 12 hours, was there wasn’t going to be an extension signed with any of the teams,” Flames general manager Craig Conroy said. “That definitely changed the way we had to negotiate and what we got back in return.”

It’s the latest aggressive move made by the Golden Knights after acquiring high-scoring forward Mitch Marner in a sign-and-trade deal with Toronto this offseason.

The 29-year-old Andersson, selected to represent Sweden at the Milan Cortina Games next month, was regarded as one of the highly prized candidates on the trade market. He’s spent all 10 NHL seasons with Calgary since being selected by the Flames in the second round of the 2015 draft.

Andersson has reached at least 30 points in each of his past four seasons, and already reached the plateau this year 10 goals and 20 assists. Overall, Andersson has 57 goals and 261 points in 584 NHL games.

The puck-moving player joins a Vegas defensive group missing Alex Pietrangelo, who stepped away from hockey due to health issues last summer, and with Brayden McNabb missing nine games with an upper-body injury.

Andersson is reunited with defenseman Noah Hanifin, who spent five-plus seasons in Calgary, before being traded to Vegas in March 2024.

Vegas has won seven straight, and coming off a 7-2 win over Nashville on Saturday night.

Whitecloud has two years left on a six-year, $16.5 million contract, and was one of the few remaining holdovers from the Golden Knights expansion season-roster in 2017-18. The 28-year-old was an undrafted free agent, has 23 goals and 78 points in 368 career games and won a Stanley Cup in 2023.

The Flames have won just three of eight, and sit 13th in the Western Conference standings, five points out of wild-card contention.

AP Sports Writer Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed to the report.

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Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson (4) tangles with Boston Bruins center Alex Steeves (21) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Winnipeg Jets' Gabriel Vilardi (13) looks to make a pass as Vegas Golden Knights' Zach Whitecloud (2) defends during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson (4) handles the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)