Barcelona discover Champions League schedule as Hansi Flick’s side handed difficult start to league phase | OneFootball

Barcelona have now discovered their schedule for the league phase of this season’s Champions League, following Thursday’s draw. Hansi Flick’s side were very strong during his stage in the 2024-25 campaign, so there will be hope for a repeat performance 12 months on.

Recently, it was revealed that Barcelona had asked UEFA to play their first league phase match away from home, and this has been accepted. However, it is a stern test for the Catalans, as they travel to St James’ Park to face Premier League side Newcastle United. And it doesn’t get much easier in MD2, as their first home fixture – which could be at the Spotify Camp Nou – is against European champions Paris Saint-Germain.

Image via Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Barcelona will then host Olympiacos on MD3, before a trip to Club Brugge two weeks later. They will travel to Chelsea on the 25th of November for their fifth league phase fixture, before a “favourable” end to their schedule with matches against Eintracht Frankfurt (home), Slavia Praha (away) and FC Copenhagen (home).

Barcelona will be content with their run, tough start aside

Like Real Madrid, Barcelona have avoided an overly tough fixture in the week of this season’s first El Clasico, with Olympiacos being the team they face- and at home too – before travelling to the Santiago Bernabeu. Flick and his players will be pleased about that, although they will not take the Greek giants lightly.

It will be very interesting to see how Barcelona get on when the league phase gets underway in just over two weeks’ time. The Catalans are sure to be one of the favourites to win the competition, and their chances will increase if they were to avoid the play-off places – as they did last season. However, nothing will be taken for granted by Flick.