The top 10 Champions League fixtures you cannot miss…

The Champions League draw has been done and with 144 games to be played, we’ve picked out 10 of the very best.

From former players returning to their old clubs to a battle of the hard bastards, here are 10 dates to mark your calendar with.

Barcelona v Como

Cesc Fabregas returns to the Camp Nou and does so with his Como side playing their first Champions League campaign.

Barcelona will be heavy favourites and should comfortably sweep the Italian team aside but Fabregas has been praised for his coaching ability and so may mastermind a victory.

Manchester United v Bayern Munich

Considering these clubs occupy second and sixth in the list of most European Cup ties played, this very much feels like a Champions League fixture.

Old Trafford has not played host to top European football since 2023 and in that season, United faced Bayern Munich in the group stage.

The Germans got the better of both legs and would be favourites to do so again but the game being at Old Trafford does make it more of a contest.

Depending on when it is scheduled, it could be an important fixture for both teams and one that gives that big European fixture feeling.

Bodo/Glimt v Atletico

Bodo/Glimt personified the ‘hard bastard to beat’ last season and they managed to beat the OG hard bastards Atletico last season.

That fixture was in the pleasant climate of Madrid but Diego Simeone’s will be travelling to the cold dark depths of Norway this time round.

Can the pot 3 team repeat their performance of last year? Their draw has been fairly kind but Atletico, along with a trip to the Allianz, will be their toughest test.

Real Madrid v Inter

Inter, the club in which Mourinho is perhaps most loved, travel to the Bernabeu for what feels like a heavyweight European clash.

Both sides are maybe a step down from the clear favourites for this year’s tournament but have reached finals in recent years and Inter won Serie A at a canter last season.

The head-to-head record is relatively even split at 10 Madrid wins to Inter’s seven but the Spanish side has won six of the previous seven meetings.

PSG v Barcelona

In recent years, this has felt like the final the Champions League deserved but not the one it got with both probably the two best teams in Europe, certainly in an attacking regard.

While PSG have won both the last two iterations of the competition, Barcelona have stumbled but it would be a good bet to suggest both could be in Madrid come June.

This is a tie that has a lot of recent history too. They were both central actors in the Remontada but the head-to-head record is evenly split at six wins apiece with four draws.

It is also a fixture that generates plenty of goals. Neither team has kept a clean sheet in the last six meetings and there has been at least three goals in the last three fixtures.

Away from El Clasico, it is the European tie that features the most superstars on one pitch. Lamine Yamal, Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia provide the attacking threat and then there is the midfield battle of Vitinha and Joao Neves versus the Rodri-enforced Barça trio.

It may not be a knockout game but it could be a taste of what’s to come.

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Fenerbahce v Liverpool

Turkey’s influence on elite European football may have diminished but away trips there are still unfancied fixtures, especially for a manager who has never coached in continental competition.

Liverpool travel to Fenerbahce in the league phase, who have a collection of former Premier League players in N’Golo Kante, Romelu Lukaku and Mason Greenwood, the latter of which is assured to receive a hostile reception from the travelling contingent.

It’s a tough task for Iroala and one that puts strain on the Premier League fixtures surrounding it given the extra travel time.

Arsenal v Bayern

Two of the competition’s favourites square off in Munich with Arsenal having not won there since 2013.

The last time the two played though it was Arsenal who got the better of it with a 3-1 win in last season’s group stage but both will be confident of victory this time round.

Both of these teams finished in the top two of the league as well last season.

Manchester United v Sabah

Azerbaijani side Sabah are the lowest-ranked side in the competition this year and their horrendous draw has given them almost no hope of reaching the knockouts.

But they frankly do not care as, watching the draw, the players celebrated as they were drawn away to Manchester United, giving these players a rare chance to play at Old Trafford.

And while that is the kind of footage that warms your heart, let’s be honest and say we can all see United absolutely making a mess of it.

Think Grimsby but on a European scale. We’re here for it.

Manchester City v Barcelona

City are involved in a trio of high-profile matches with themselves, PSG and Barcelona all set to play each other but it is the trip to the Camp Nou that generates the most intrigue.

Having faced each other six times in the space of two and half years, it has now been almost a decade since the pair met and City have never won in Barcelona.

The Catalans also have an overwhelming record against City having lost just one of the six matches and scoring 12 goals in their five victories.

Pep Guardiola was beaten 4-0 via a Lionel Messi hat-trick on his only return to the Camp Nou with City and you would fancy the Catalans again this time round.

Rodri’s recent swap adds another intriguing element.

Arsenal v Real Madrid

It’s a fixture with more narratives than any other.

Ex-Spurs and Chelsea manager Mourinho returning to the Emirates to face a club he has only lost three times against. Vinicius Junior, the one that got away, heading to north London but in a white rather than red shirt. A chance at revenge for the hammering Arsenal dished out two years ago.

Real Madrid clearly have the better attackers but Arsenal have the better defence and so while there is the danger that both could cancel each other out, there is also the hope it erupts into uncontrolled chaos.