It is just over two weeks since Rodri scored the winning goal as Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City beat Inter Milan 1-0 to become European champions for the first time.
Now, in a town in west Iceland, the 2023-24 Champions League is set to begin on Tuesday – the last season before the format changes completely.
BBC Sport takes a look at this season’s competition, some of the teams that will be playing, the key dates of the matches and how the tournament will be different next year.
From Iceland to Wembley
Kopavogur in Iceland will be the venue for the four-team preliminary round featuring sides you can be forgiven for never having heard of.
Two of Atletic d’Escaldes (Andorra), Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro), Tre Penne (San Marino) and Breidablik (Iceland) will move into the next phase – and the winner of that contest on 30 June will advance into the first qualifying round and a tie with Irish side Shamrock Rovers.
After the preliminary round, come three two-legged qualifying rounds before the two-legged play-offs in August, with the group stages beginning in September.
A total of 78 teams from 53 countries will play in either qualifying or the group phase, although, once again, there will be no Russian sides as they are still banned by Uefa following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
As has been the case in every season since 2003-04, 32 teams will play in the group phase, divided into eight groups of four, with the top two advancing into the last 16 and the teams coming third dropping into the second-tier Europa League.
The draw for the group stage takes place on 31 August and Spain will have five teams involved as Sevilla won the Europa League but finished outside the top four in La Liga last season.
Newcastle will be playing in Europe for the first time since 2012-13 after coming fourth in the Premier League, with Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United the other English entrants. Teams from the same country will not be drawn against each other in qualifying or the group phase.
Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic qualify automatically for the group stage, but Rangers come in at the third qualifying round and need to get through two rounds to join their rivals.
Union Berlin finished fourth in Germany’s Bundesliga and will be in the Champions League for the first time.
After the group phase ends in mid-December it will be the last 16 in 2024, then the quarter-finals and semi-finals – all played over two legs – before the final at Wembley on 1 June.
Which teams enter in what round?
Teams from the UK and Ireland in qualifying rounds
To see the full Champions League fixture list click here.
Group stage (26 teams, plus six qualifiers)
- Austria: Red Bull Salzburg
- England: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle.
- France: Lens, Paris St-Germain.
- Germany: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Union Berlin.
- Italy: AC Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio, Napoli.
- Netherlands: Feyenoord
- Portugal: Benfica, Porto.
- Scotland: Celtic.
- Serbia: Red Star Belgrade.
- Spain: Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Sevilla (2022-23 Europa League winners).
- Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk.
Dates of matches
- Preliminary round: 27 June (semi-finals) and 30 June (final).
- First qualifying round: 11-12 and 18-19 July.
- Second qualifying round: 25-26 July and 1-2 August.
- Third qualifying round: 8-9 and 15 August.
- Play-offs: 22-23 and 29-30 August.
- Group stage matchday one: 19-20 September.
- Matchday two: 3-4 October.
- Matchday three: 24-25 October.
- Matchday four: 7-8 November.
- Matchday five: 28-29 November.
- Matchday six: 12-13 December.
- Last 16: 13-14, 20-21 February and 5-6, 12-13 March.
- Quarter-finals: 9-10, 16-17 April.
- Semi-finals: 30 April, 1 May, 7-8 May.
- Final: 1 June.
All change for 2024-25
This will be the last season of the existing format – 32 teams in the group phase, split up into eight groups of four, with the top two advancing – with widespread changes coming in for 2024-25.
The new format will see 36 sides, with two of the four extra places awarded to countries whose clubs have performed the best in the previous campaign.
If the new format had been introduced for 2023-24 and not 2024-25, Liverpool and Atalanta would have been in this season’s Champions League because of the performances of English and Italian clubs in European competition in 2022-23.
From 2024-25, all teams will now play eight matches (instead of six) against eight different opponents, with four home ties and four away.
All 36 sides will be ranked in one single league table – three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat.
The top eight in this table will go straight into the knockout stages, while those from ninth to 24th will compete in two-legged play-offs to join them in the last 16.
