{"id":1169566,"date":"2026-08-26T02:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1169566\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T02:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:01:19","slug":"who-man-utd-can-face-in-champions-league-as-major-threats-loom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1169566\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Man Utd can face in Champions League as major threats loom"},"content":{"rendered":"

As this is Man United<\/a>\u2019s return to Europe\u2019s top table after a two-year absence, it will their first experience of the brand new format following UEFA\u2019s radical shake-up.<\/p>\n

The previous group stage of eight groups consisting of four teams each has been ditched in favour of a new league format, though Man Utd will be familiar with how it works after navigating their way to the 2024\/25 Europa League final.<\/p>\n

Once again, all 36 teams will be separated into four pots and two will be drawn from each. They will face eight different opponents, playing four matches at home and four away. <\/p>\n

Play-off ties on Tuesday and Wednesday will decide the remaining qualifiers and complete the subsequent pots as Michael Carrick waits to discover who will be heading to Old Trafford and what European trips await his side.<\/p>\n

Which pot are Manchester United in for the Champions League draw?<\/p>\n

Manchester United have been placed in Pot 2, as their current coefficient has them sat 25th in UEFA\u2019s rankings for European teams.<\/p>\n

Who Manchester United can face in Champions League<\/p>\n

The ceremony will produce eight opponents for every team, two from each pot. That means Manchester United will play two of the top-ranked clubs.<\/p>\n

They cannot play a team from their own country (Arsenal, Liverpool, Aston Villa or Manchester City) at this stage and can only play a maximum of two teams from a different association.<\/p>\n

As such, United\u2019s potential opponents from pot 1 are Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and holders Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Man United could face a reunion with Jose Mourinho in the Champions League<\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

From pot 2, it will be one from Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting CP, Club Brugge, Real Betis and PSV Eindhoven.<\/p>\n

Champions League league phase matchdays<\/p>\n

The exact make-up of each week in terms of kick-off times and match dates will be provided by UEFA.<\/p>\n

Matchday 1:<\/strong> September 8-10, 2026<\/p>\n

Matchday 2: <\/strong>October 13\/14, 2026<\/p>\n

Matchday 3: <\/strong>October 20\/21, 2026<\/p>\n

Matchday 4: <\/strong>November 3\/4, 2026<\/p>\n

Matchday 5: <\/strong>November 24\/25, 2026<\/p>\n

Matchday 6:<\/strong> December 8\/9, 2026<\/p>\n

Matchday 7:<\/strong> January 19\/20, 2026<\/p>\n

Matchday 8: <\/strong>January 27, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As this is Man United\u2019s return to Europe\u2019s top table after a two-year absence, it will their first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1169567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,131324,393,4884,30567,2465,16,15],"class_list":["post-1169566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-champions-league-draw","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-man-united","tag-manchester","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1169567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}