Arsenal will be aiming to reach another final in the Champions League for the new 2026-27 season
12:02, 30 Jul 2026Updated 12:02, 30 Jul 2026
Arsenal will be aiming to reach another final in the Champions League for the new 2026-27 season
Mikel Arteta returns to the UEFA Champions League looking to again go one step further for a fourth straight season in the competition. Arsenal reached the final of the competition, having made the semi-finals the season before and the quarter-final one year prior to that.
The natural next step and what the club want to do is to become the champions of Europe. The Premier League kicks off on August 21 with the Gunners hosting Coventry City, but the Champions League will begin the following month.
The season has undergone slight changes, with the September and October international breaks combined into a double-weekend run rather than the typical single weekend in each month. However, the Gunners will not see much change to the schedule that they have been used to.
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The qualifying stage for the competition is currently underway, and once all teams have earned their place, the Gunners will be drawn against eight new opponents. Since the tournament was revamped, Pot 1 Arsenal will be drawn against two sides from each of the four pots, one home and one away.
After the eight matches played from September to January, the top eight teams in the league phase will immediately qualify for the last-16 round. Whereas teams finishing ninth to 24th will face off in a play-off round, with the winners joining the top eight in the last-16.
A team’s placement will decide their potential opponents before a new draw is made, with brackets deciding the pathways all the way to the final. Arsenal finished first last season, meaning that they played the second leg of all their knockout matches in North London.
Pot 1 contains the winners of last season’s tournament, who beat the Gunners in the final, Paris Saint-Germain, with several other elite sides, although Arsenal cannot face an English side in the league phase. Find out all the details below:
Teams already qualified and likely pots
Pot 1: PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid
Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting CP, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV
Pot 3: Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray
Pot 3/4: Slavia Praha, Stuttgart (Winner of the League Path), (Winners of the Champions Path)
Pot 4: Como, Lens
Champions League 2026/27 schedule
League phase
Matchday 1: 8–10 September 2026
Matchday 2: 13/14 October 2026
Matchday 3: 20/21 October 2026
Matchday 4: 3/4 November 2026
Matchday 5: 24/25 November 2026
Matchday 6: 8/9 December 2026
Matchday 7: 19/20 January 2027
Matchday 8: 27 January 2027
Knockout phase play-offs
First leg: 16-17 February
Second leg: 23-24 February
Round of 16
First leg: 9-10 March
Second leg: 16-17 March
Quarter-finals
First leg: 6-7 April
Second leg: 13-14 April
Semi-finals
First leg: 27-28 April
Second leg: 4-5 May
Final
Saturday, 5 June, 2026 at Estadio Metropolitano Madrid
Champions League draw dates
League phase: 27 August
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Knockout phase play-offs: TBC