Confirmed: The date when Real Madrid will find out its Champions League rivals

Real Madrid has already left behind what happened last season and is focusing on the one that's about to begin. In La Liga, it will debut this Tuesday, facing Osasuna at Santiago Bernabéu. However, many viewers are also looking to Europe, to the Champions League, to win the Sixteenth.

The first thing will be to find out when the group stage draw will take place, thus knowing its rivals. Defensa Central has confirmed that it will be next Thursday, August 28 starting at 6:00 p.m. (18:00), and will take place in Monaco. In addition, the procedure will be the same as the one we saw last year.

Real Madrid is once again a top seed thanks to its coefficient achieved in recent years. This is something it has earned after winning 2 of the last 4 editions of the Champions League. This should give it a clearer path, although we already saw that this isn't always the case.

With all the qualified teams yet to be known, Los Merengues could have to deal with a very complicated path. PSG, Bayern, Arsenal, Leverkusen, PSV, Napoli, Monaco, and Newcastle could be. It would be the worst of possible scenarios and seems unlikely.

The draw system that will be repeated this year

As happened last year, the first thing will be to draw a ball from the first pot, where Real Madrid is. When the name that appears is Los Merengues, the next step will be automatic. Software will conduct the draw after a button is pressed.

Two rivals will be chosen from each of the pots, to play one of the matches at home and one away. Some limitations to keep in mind are that teams from the same federation can't face each other. Nor can they face two from the same federation.

From this phase on, all of this is eliminated and there could be matchups between teams from the same federation. In fact, last season this already happened with Brest and PSG facing each other. So the 2025-26 Champions League is about to get underway for Real Madrid.