Manchester City and Newcastle United face Thursday night Champions League clashes, with the reasons behind this scheduling explained.
The UEFA Champions League is back, and this season brings a host of exciting matchups. One of the most notable changes is the scheduling of the opening games for Manchester City and Newcastle United, who will face Napoli and Barcelona respectively, on Thursday nights.
This shift in schedule is part of a wider shake-up by UEFA in their three continental cup competitions. The Champions League and Europa League will have their opening weeks to themselves in September, while the other competitions' games are spread out.
The Champions League games will be held exclusively on Thursday nights this season, as they were last year. However, the UEFA Champions League matches of Manchester City and Newcastle United were rescheduled to Tuesday, September 18, instead of the usual Thursday evening. The exact official reason for this change is not apparent from the search results.
Other notable matchups include FC Copenhagen against Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt facing Galatasaray, and Brugge taking on Monaco.
Meanwhile, the Conference League, which starts two weeks after the Champions League, will see Sporting play Kairat. Nottingham Forest will face Real Betis on Wednesday 24 September, as the Europa League games will be held on Wednesday evenings in the following week.
Interestingly, Arsenal were the only English side affected in the Champions League shake-up last season. No Thursday night slots were needed for week commencing September 15.
TV rights are being sold for extra evening games in September to help fill the gap left by the Champions League and Europa League's exclusive September schedule. Barcelona's visit to St James' Park and Napoli's trip to the Etihad are among the Thursday Champions League games this season.
Celtic will visit Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) on Wednesday 24 September, marking the start of the Europa League league phase, which begins a week before the Champions League equivalent.
As the Champions League and Europa League take centre stage in September, football fans are in for a treat with this season's exciting line-up of matches.
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