UEFA have confirmed that some Champions League matches will be on Thursday next season, with the full fixture schedule now revealed.
Finishing second in this season’s Premier League, Arsenal have qualified for the 2024/25 Champions League, along with fellow Premier League sides Manchester City, Liverpool, and Aston Villa.
Yet despite making it into the Champions League, the Gunners may still have a European game on a Thursday next season.
UEFA have confirmed the fixture schedule for next year, with the vast majority of matches taking place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as usual.
However, the first gameweek of the campaign (September 17th-19th) will be a “Champions League exclusive” week, with no Europa League or Europa Conference League matches played that week.
UEFA had previously confirmed that each European competition will get one exclusive gameweek, with only matches from that competition taking place in that particular midweek.
As a result, with no Europa League or Europa Conference League matches on Thursday, September 19th, some Champions League matches will be played that day instead.
The one other key date of note is January 29th, the end of the ‘league stage’. All 36 teams will play on that Wednesday, with no Champions League games on the Tuesday of that week.
For those unaware of the new league-stage format for the Champions League, Arsenal will play eight matches against eight different teams, with four at home and four away.
The results of those eight games will be compared with the results of the eight matches of all other 35 teams in the competition to create a combined league table.
The top-eight finishers progress directly to the round-of-16, finishers 9 to 24 progress to a play-off round, whilst finishers 25 to 36 are eliminated.
After that, it’s a two-legged knockout tournament to the final as usual.
Champions League dates in full
League Stage
- Matchday 1: 17–19 September 2024
- Matchday 2: 1/2 October 2024
- Matchday 3: 22/23 October 2024
- Matchday 4: 5/6 November 2024
- Matchday 5: 26/27 November 2024
- Matchday 6: 10/11 December 2024
- Matchday 7: 21/22 January 2025
- Matchday 8: 29 January 2025
Knockout Stage
- Knockout round play-offs: 11/12 & 18/19 February 2025
- Round of 16: 4/5 & 11/12 March 2025
- Quarter-finals: 8/9 & 15/16 April 2025
- Semi-finals: 29/30 April & 6/7 May 2025
- Final: 31 May 2025