Champions League draw: Arsenal to face Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid as tough fixtures revealed | OneFootball

Gunners won all eight of their league-phase matches last season

Mikel Arteta’s side last faced the Spanish giants in the quarter-finals of the competition in 2025, when Declan Rice scored two free-kicks on Arsenal’s way to a 5-1 aggregate win.

The Gunners won all eight of their league-phase matches last season and made it to the final, where they were beaten on penalties by Paris Saint-Germain.

They will be looking to go one further this time, though Arsenal have been handed a difficult set of fixtures.

The German champions are one of the favourites to win the Champions League and Harry Kane will be keen to add to his superb record against the Gunners.

Arsenal will take on Borussia Dortmund and Real Betis too, both sides they played this summer in pre-season and lost to.

There is a tough away trip against Napoli to contend with, while Arsenal will be grateful they are facing Azerbaijan’s Sabah in north London rather than away from home.

Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win against Slavia Prague last season and they will again be off to the Fortuna Arena for a repeat of that fixture.

The fixture list has also thrown up a home tie against Lille, which will mean a return to north London for Olivier Giroud.

UEFA are yet to confirm the order of those fixtures, but Arsenal will begin their Champions League campaign on the week commencing September 7.

Matches will be played across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that week, before resuming the usual Tuesday or Wednesday schedule for the next six weeks of fixtures.

The final 18 matches in the league phase will then all kick off at the same time on January 27.