The 70th season of the UEFA Champions League begins today with the first of eight matchdays in a new tournament.

The annual European club football tournament sees 36 of the continent’s best club teams compete against each other, giving fans more opportunities than ever to see their team in action against other top clubs.

RELATED: The bet you should place when the UEFA Champions League starts

Of course, last year’s winners, Real Madrid, will also be back, as will the runners-up of the 2023-2024 season, Borussia Dortmund, and the champions of the 2022-2023 season, Manchester City.

Below we explain how to follow every match from Matchday 1, with a schedule and an explanation of how the new tournament style works.

How to watch and stream UEFA Champions League Matchday 1 for free:

The streaming home of the UEFA Champions League in the United States is Paramount+, so every match of every matchday will be streamed there.

Our favorite way to watch Paramount+ is with the Prime Video Channels add-on, which is available to all Prime Video subscribers.

Prime Video Channels lets Amazon Prime subscribers add streaming subscriptions to Prime Video, combining multiple services into one convenient app.

It costs the same as a direct subscription; $7.99/month with ads and $12.99/month without ads. There is also a 7-day free trial included.

Obviously, you’ll need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber with Prime Video to add Paramount+, but if you’re not, that’s no problem: there’s a free 30-day trial for that too.

UEFA Champions League Matchday 1 Schedule:

There will be six matches on each day of UCL Matchday 1; two will kick off at 12:45pm ET, while the other four will kick off at 3pm ET.

Tuesday September 17

• Juventus vs. PSV, 12:45 ET
• Young Boys vs. Aston Villa, 12:45pm ET
• Bayern Munich vs. GNK Dinamo, 3:00 PM ET
• AC Milan vs. Liverpool, 3:00 PM ET
• Real Madrid vs. Stuttgart, 3:00 PM ET
• Sporting CP vs. Lille, 3:00 PM ET

Wednesday September 18th

• Bologna vs Shakhtar, 12:45pm ET
• Sparta Prague vs. Salzburg, 12:45pm ET
• Club Brugge vs. Borussia Dortmund, 3:00 PM ET
• Celtic vs. ŠK Slovan Bratislava, 3:00 PM ET
• Man City vs. Inter Milan, 3:00pm ET
• Paris vs. Girona, 3:00pm ET

Thursday September 19th

• Crvena Zvezda vs. Benfica, 12:45 PM ET
• Feyenoord vs Leverkusen, 12:45 ET
• Atalanta vs Arsenal, 3:00pm ET
• Atleta vs Leipzig, 3:00pm ET
• Monaco vs Barcelona, ​​3:00pm ET
• Brest vs Sturm Graz, 3pm ET

The new UEFA Champions League format explained:

2024-25 will be the first year that UCL will use a “Swiss” system which, among other changes, replaces the group stage with a league stage.

Previous UCL tournaments began with a group stage, with 32 teams divided into eight groups of four, similar to the group stage used at this summer’s European Championships. From there, each team would play each opponent in their group twice — home and away — before progressing to a knockout stage.

In this new format, the league stage has been expanded to 36 teams, and instead of placing and organizing the teams into groups, each team plays against eight different teams, half at home and half away. The teams are organized into a single league, with all 36 teams ranked together.

However, the scoring has not changed: the winners receive three points, while the tied clubs each receive one point.

This is partly to give clubs and opportunity to test themselves against a wider range of opponents. It also gives fans more opportunities to see top teams play head-to-head more often and earlier in the tournament.

The top eight clubs then automatically advance to the round of 16, while the teams finishing ninth through twenty-fourth compete in a knockout play-off to qualify.

In addition to the UCL, this new format will also be used for matches in the Europa League and the UEFA Conference League.

When is the next UEFA Champions League match?

UCL Matchday 2 will take place on Tuesday 1 October and Wednesday 2 October.

Which clubs qualified for the 2024 UEFA Champions League?

• Arsenal (Premier League)
• Aston Villa (First Division)
• Atalanta (Serie A)
• Atletico Madrid (La Liga)
• Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga)
• Barcelona (La Liga)
• Bayern Munich (Bundesliga)
• Benfica (Portuguese League)
• Bologna (Serie A)
• Brest (Ligue 1)
• Celtic (Scottish Premiership)
• Club Brugge (Belgian Pro League)
• Crvena Zvezda (Serbian Super League)
• Feyenoord (Eredivisie)
• Girona (La Liga)
• GNK Dinamo (Croatian Football League)
• Internazionale (Serie A)
• Juventus (Serie A)
• Leipzig (Bundesliga)
• Leverkusen (Bundesliga)
• Lille (Ligue 1)
• Liverpool (First Division)
• Manchester City (Premier League)
• AC Milan (Serie A)
• Monaco (Ligue 1)
• Paris Saint-Germain (Ligue 1)
• PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie)
• Real Madrid (La Liga)
• Slovan Bratislava (Slovak Super League)
• Salzburg (Austrian Bundesliga)
• Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian Premier League)
• Sparta Prague (Czech First League)
• Sporting CP (Portuguese League)
• Sturm Graz (Austrian Bundesliga)
• Stuttgart (Bundesliga)
• Young Boys (Swiss Super League)

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