Champions League kick-off times: All you need to know after the UEFA change
- UEFA has changed the kick-off times of Champions League group stage ties
- English teams affected include Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City
- European sides affected include Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich
Following the international break, football supporters will undoubtedly be eagerly awaiting the beginning of the Champions League group stages.
However, Tottenham fans tuning on September 18 at 19.45 and hoping to see the London side kick-off their Champions League campaign with a win against Inter Milan will be sorely disappointed to discover that that match would have already ended.
That’s because UEFA introduced a host of new rules for the 2018/19 season, one of which includes staggered kick-off times.
European sides affectedby the new kick-off times include Real Madrid and Bayern Munich
Traditionally, most Champions League games, with the exception of some games played in Russia, kicked off at 19.45 BST/GMT until this season.
However, in order to get people to watch more games, UEFA decided to have an earlier and a later kick-off, thus not forcing people to choose which group stage tie to watch.
Here is all you need to know about the new Champions League kick-off times including when they are and how Premier League teams are affected.
New Champions League kick-off times
Following UEFA’s decision to stagger the Champions League match times from the old 19.45 BST/GMT schedule, the new kick-off times are: 17.55 BST/GMT and 20.00 BST/GMT.
The same times are applied to the Europa League.
From the knockout stages onwards, all matches will be played at 20.00 BST/GMT.
English teams playing at 17.55 BST/GMT.
Three out of four Premier League teams will play at least one match at the 17.55 BST/GMT kick-off. These are: Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool.
Manchester United is the only English team to have its six Group Stage matches kick-off at 20.00pm BST/GMT.
None of the English teams’ home fixtures will be played at the earlier kick-off.
Here are the fixtures involving the English teams that kick off at 17.55 BST/GMT:
- Inter Milan vs Tottenham (18/09 Group B)
- Hoffenheim vs Manchester City (02/10 Group F)
- PSV Eindhoven vs Tottenham (24/10 Group B)
- Red Star Belgrade vs Liverpool (06/11 Group C)
Other matches starting earlier
The UEFA rule change will see many top European sides play at the earlier kick-off time. This includes Juventus v Young Boys on Tuesday, 2 October, PSG vs Red Star Belgrade the following night and Atletico Madrid vs Monaco on Wednesday, 28 November.
Russian side CSKA Moscow will play three times at the earlier kick off, while fellow Russian League side Lokomotiv Moscow will play twice.
Monaco will also play half of its six group stage games at the earlier kick-off time. Teams playing two games out of six at the 17.55 kick off are Valencia, Ajax and Roma.
The likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester City and Liverpool only start at the earlier kick-off once.
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