You can also listen to the article in audio version.
In this year’s UEFA Champions League, the Prague team AC Sparta Praha will face tough matches against the European football giants. From the first two baskets, i.e. the better teams on paper, except for Manchester City, who won the English league four times in a row, Sparta she drew lots and Inter Milan, Atlético Madrid and the German champion Bayer Leverkusen. In addition, Sparta also has matches against Salzburg, Rotterdam Feyenoord, French Brest and Stuttgart.
Sparta will play Inter Milan and Atlético Madrid at home in this year’s Champions League. Sparta will also welcome Austria’s Salzburg and Brest to Letná. The Spartans will have to go to Manchester’s Etihad Stadium and to Leverkusen in Germany, as well as to Rotterdam, where they will play a match with Feyenoord. The last away match of Sparta Prague awaits in Stuttgart.
The basic phase of the UEFA Champions League will work differently from this season than it has been used to. No groups will be drawn this year, all 36 teams will be in one league table. The teams will play eight games instead of six – four at home and four away. Each team can only play two clubs from one country.
The first eight teams will then advance directly to the knockout phase, the second and third eight will play a double-header to advance to the Champions League play-offs. The rest of the teams finish, eliminated teams will not go to the Europa League playoffs again.
When the matches were drawn, the football clubs were divided into four baskets according to how they were seeded. Each team will also play two teams from each basket, one at home and one away. Sparta Prague was seeded in the fourth basket.
