The 2025 Champions League draw takes place tonight, starting at 5pm as we finally learn who Eddie Howe’s Mags will face in our upcoming league phase games.
A restructuring of the group phase to a league format last season means the draw works a bit differently to the last one Newcastle United competed in.
So, how is it different? The video below explain it nicely:
The new era continues…
⏯️ How each draw works 👇 #UCLdraw | #UELdraw | #UECLdraw pic.twitter.com/bzMMy5ukM9
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 27, 2025
The draw is still taken from four pots. Each pot is made up of nine teams, which are as follows after Champions League qualifiers were completed across Tuesday and Wednesday night, seeing Celtic miss out and Benfica qualify:
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In the previous draws, one team from each pot would be manually drawn to make one group. However, with no groups, UEFA now choose a team from pot one (teams with the most UEFA Coefficient points). Then, a super computer will randomly pick eight other teams for that team to play against, four at home and four away. This goes down the list until all teams have eight fixtures.
There are some conditions to the draw, such as teams can’t play others from their home country during the league phase. Teams also cannot play more than two teams from the same country, for example Newcastle can’t play against Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.
Knowing all that, what can we expect from Newcastle United in this draw?
Newcastle United is in Pot Four. We know that Eddie Howe’s men can’t play against other Premier League teams, meaning Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool are crossed off the list until the knockout round. Since its a league format of all 36 teams, there’s unlikely to be another ‘group of death’ situation, like the one in 2023.
Pot one includes the elite teams, such as defenders PSG, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Due to their order in the draw, it’s very likely Newcastle will face one of those teams. They’ve already had run ins with PSG and Dortmund in 2023’s Champions League group, with poor results excluding that magic 4-1 win at St James’ Park vs PSG. Is there potential for another giant killing this season? With a much deeper squad than last time, Newcastle have enough options off the bench to stay in games longer than previous weekday nights.
Given the limit on teams from the same country, it might be possible to expect to play against teams from many countries, where their domestic leagues may not be on par with the elite. Teams like Galatasaray, Qarabag, FC Copenhagen and Club Brugge may appear on the fixture list.
This will prove a test for Newcastle, as the league format gives smaller teams a chance to go to the knockout stages if they perform well enough. Club Brugge will be a tough game, they showed they can play against the larger teams, beating Aston Villa one nil at home last year, and the same can be said of other teams in that category.
Fans can expect some new away days, including cities with rich footballing history, and it’s sure to be a wild ride.
The fixtures list will be posted on the 30th August, showing the kick off times of the games, and whether they’ll be home or away. However the draw turns out, there will definitely be points on the board for Newcastle to capitalise on, possibly earning a spot in the knockout rounds.