Real Madrid UEFA Champions League 2024-25 schedule ...

European football giants Real Madrid will start their UEFA Champions League 2024-25 campaign on Wednesday when they welcome VfB Stuttgart to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.

Los Blancos, a record 15-time UEFA Champions League (UCL) winners, will be without their star midfielder Tony Kroos, who retired last season but have bolstered their squad with the headline signing of French star Kylian Mbappe and Brazilian wonderkid Endrick.

The UCL 2024-25 season will see the introduction of the new UEFA Champions League format. A total of 36 clubs from Europe's top football competitions will battle in a league phase (former group stage).

The clubs will play eight matches in the new league phase against eight different teams, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away.

The results of each match will be important in determining the overall ranking in the league table. The top eight sides in the table will automatically qualify for the UCL round of 16.

The clubs finishing from the 9th to the 24th position will compete in a two-legged knock-out phase play-offs. The winners of these matches will secure the rest of the eight spots in the round of 16. Teams that finish below 24th will be eliminated.

In the UEFA Champions League 2024-25 league phase, Real Madrid will play VfB Stuttgart, LOSC Lille, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan, Liverpool, Atalanta, Salzburg and Brest. Real Madrid’s away fixtures will be against Lille, Liverpool, Bergamo and Brest.

The home fixture against Borussia Dortmund on October 23 will be a rematch of the UCL 2023-24 final, where the Spanish giants beat the German side 2-0 to clinch the title.

Real Madrid will also resume continental rivalry with Liverpool away from home on November 28. In the 2017-18 and 2021-22 UCL finals, the Spanish team trumped the Premier League giants for the title.

The UCL league phase will begin on September 17 and end on January 30. The knock-outs will begin in February. The final will be played on May 31 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.

Apart from the UCL 2024-25, Real Madrid will simultaneously compete in La Liga, alongside Supercopa de Espana and Copa del Rey.

All times in India Standard Time (IST)