Real Madrid will discover their eight opponents in the 2026-27 Champions League league phase on Thursday, with the draw potentially adding another chapter to some of the club’s most enduring European rivalries.
This will be the third season of UEFA’s 36-team league format, which replaced the traditional group stage in 2024. Real Madrid will play eight different opponents — four at the Santiago Bernabéu and four away — between the opening matchdays on September 8-10 and the final, simultaneous round
on January 27, 2027.
There are several restrictions built into the draw. Clubs cannot face teams from their own domestic league during the league phase and can be paired with no more than two opponents from any other country. That means Madrid cannot be drawn against Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Villarreal or Real Betis, the other Spanish representatives in this season’s competition.
UEFA’s automated draw system will ultimately be responsible for producing the 144 league-phase fixtures while respecting those restrictions.
There is also a new wrinkle this season concerning repeat fixtures. UEFA’s regulations prevent the same two clubs from playing at the same venue in the league phase for three consecutive seasons.
That is particularly relevant for Real Madrid and Liverpool.
Madrid have travelled to Anfield in each of the first two seasons under the league-phase format. Should Liverpool and Real Madrid be paired together again on Thursday, the fixture would therefore have to be played at the Bernabéu rather than Anfield.
The rule is designed to introduce more variety into the competition and prevent the expanded league phase from producing exactly the same matchups at the same venues year after year.
Liverpool are only one of several familiar names Madrid could encounter. Manchester City, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are among the clubs with extensive Champions League history against Los Blancos.
Few rivalries have developed as rapidly as Madrid’s with Manchester City.
The clubs did not meet in European competition until the 2012-13 season, but have already played 17 times. City have appeared on Madrid’s Champions League schedule in each of the past five editions and six of the last seven.
That has made Manchester City the third-most frequent opponent Real Madrid have faced in European Cup history. Madrid’s record across those 17 games stands at seven victories, five draws and five defeats, with 30 goals scored and 27 conceded.
City have already overtaken two historic Madrid opponents in terms of meetings: AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund, who have each faced Los Blancos 16 times in the competition.
Madrid’s history with Milan stretches all the way back to the inaugural European Cup in 1956, when the teams met in the semi-finals, while Dortmund have repeatedly crossed paths with Madrid in the modern Champions League era. Their most significant recent meeting came in the 2024 final at Wembley, where Madrid defeated Dortmund to secure their 15th European Cup.
Juventus sit above all three.
Real Madrid and the Italian giants have met 22 times in European competition, including two finals. Madrid won both: the 1998 final in Amsterdam and the 2017 final in Cardiff.
But even that rivalry falls short of the most frequently played fixture in Real Madrid’s European history.
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have met 30 times.
The rivalry spans half a century, beginning with their 1976 European Cup semi-final and most recently continuing with last season’s Champions League quarter-final. The record could scarcely be closer: Madrid and Bayern have each won 13 of the 30 meetings, with four draws. Madrid have scored 49 goals to Bayern’s 48.
The Germans had the upper hand in the most recent installment. Bayern won 2-1 at the Bernabéu in the first leg of the 2025-26 quarter-finals before a remarkable 4-3 victory in Munich completed a 6-4 aggregate elimination of Madrid.
Over the years, the two clubs have encountered each other at virtually every stage of the competition, including the group stage, round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals. The 1999-2000 campaign was particularly unusual: Madrid and Bayern met four times in the same edition before Los Blancos eventually went on to win their eighth European Cup.
Thursday’s draw could bring the rivalry back for a 31st meeting.
Whether it is Bayern, City, Juventus, Dortmund, Liverpool or a collection of less familiar opponents, Madrid will soon have their European roadmap for the first half of the season.
And if Liverpool are among those eight names, there is already one certainty: this time, the meeting will take place in Madrid.
