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The Champions League will have a distinctly different look next season after UEFA announced sweeping changes to its marquee club competition starting in 2024-25.

Following more than 20 years under the current format, UEFA finally revealed plans for its highly anticipated revamped Champions League, apparently in response to the brief threat posed by the European Super League last year.

What’s different about the new format?

The removal of the group stage format is perhaps the biggest change announced Monday.

The 32-team group stage featured since 2003 will be replaced by a league phase and include an additional four teams, bringing the total number of Champions League participants to 36 clubs.

Next season, qualified teams will play eight games – two more than in previous years – in the opening round of the tournament.

Each club will be drawn against eight different opponents that it will play in four home and four away matches. Teams will be initially ranked in four seeding pots to determine their eight opponents.

The switch should make “top teams” meet earlier in the tournament more frequently, according to UEFA.

To allocate the four extra Champions League league phase spots, two places will go to teams in the best-performing leagues in Europe, based on their performance in the current season. The third will go to the third-ranked team in the league ranked fifth in the UEFA coefficient.

The fourth additional place goes to “a domestic champion by extending from four to five the number of clubs qualifying via the Champions path of the competition’s qualifying process,” which consists of four qualifying rounds.

How will the knockout phase work?

To directly qualify for the round of 16, teams must finish in the top eight positions of the league.

Clubs that finish between ninth place and 24th will meet in a two-legged knockout playoff round to determine who qualifies for the remaining eight spots in the round of 16.

Teams that finish 25th and lower are eliminated automatically and won’t be granted access to the Europa League.

After the round of 16, the tournament will continue to use its current format of two-legged knockout round games until the one-leg final.

“The new format, with all the teams ranked together in a single league, will mean that there is more to play for all the way through to the final night of the league phase,” UEFA said.

Will this affect the calendar?

Under the new system, first-round games in the Champions League and Europa League games will be played between September and January, while the Europa Conference League matches will take place from September until December.

Each league will have “one exclusive matchweek” in addition to standard weeks in which matches will be contested on the same days as this season.

However, during the Champions League-specific week, games will be played Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On the Europa League week, games are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, while the Europa Conference League-specific week feature games on Thursdays.

What about the Europa League, Conference League?

The Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League will adopt similar changes to the Champions League, including a league phase instead of the group stage and expanding to 36 teams.

However, clubs in the UEFA Europa Conference League – which will be called UEFA Conference League after this season – are guaranteed six games in the opening round instead of eight, like the Champions League and Europa League.

The 2024-25 Champions League season officially kicks off July 9 and concludes with the final match on May 31, 2025.

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Marko Arnautovic gave Inter Milan a single-goal advantage in their Champions League last-16 tie with Atletico Madrid after netting the only goal in Tuesday’s hard-fought 1-0 win.

Austria striker Arnautovic replaced Marcus Thuram at half-time and rammed home Inter’s winner with 11 minutes left at the San Siro after Jan Oblak failed to hold Lautaro Martinez’s shot.

The 34-year-old turned jeers into deafening cheers with his goal, which came after a series of missed opportunities left home fans wondering whether Inter would get the win their performance deserved.

His worst miss came just after the hour mark when he ballooned over a sitter, a dreadful finish which came before and after failed attempts to latch on to promising balls.

“It is certainly one of the most important goals of my career,” said Arnautovic to Sky Sport.

“In recent weeks I’ve missed a lot of chances. But the fans and the players showed they are behind me… It gave me the energy I needed to score the goal.”

Arnautovic has had a hard time since returning to Inter on loan from Bologna last summer and those misses further frustrated supporters.

However, thanks to him Simone Inzaghi’s side, who are nine points clear at the top of Serie A, take a slender lead to Madrid where they will face Atletico in the decisive second leg on March 13.

Atletico have been a more attacking proposition this season but retreated into the dogged defensive mode more representative of Diego Simeone’s long reign in Spain.

They could not keep Inter out and now have to overturn Tuesday’s result in order to reach the quarter-finals.

“We have to keep our heads up, there is one game left and we are going to do everything possible to to get through,” said Oblak to Movistar.

“They had two or three chances when we weren’t perfect and in a game like this you have to be perfect all the time.”

Arnautovic redeemed

A cagey first half between two resolute teams left fans with little to shout about, with only a few pot shots getting supporters off their seats until the 36th minute, when Martinez saw his powerful header from Nicolo Barella’s cross saved by Oblak.

And moments later Martinez left Inter fans with their heads in their hands after uncharacteristically wasting a golden opportunity to open the scoring.

Martinez was handed a clear chance after Marcus Thuram intercepted Rodrigo De Paul’s wayward pass and burst towards Oblak’s goal, only for the Argentina forward to scuff his effort off Jose Maria Gimenez.

Thuram then had a powerful effort of his own easily saved by Oblak as Inter finished the opening half in the ascendency.

However the France forward hurt his right thigh while taking that shot and he was replaced at half-time by match-winner Arnautovic, who three minutes after the break could not quite direct Federico Dimarco’s teasing cross on target.

Samuel Lino, who curled a decent effort wide in the first half, wasted Atletico’s best chance of the night in the 56th minute when he fluffed his finish from a tight angle after exchanging passes with Rodrigo De Paul.

And Arnautovic, who has had a hard time since his return, did himself no favours when he shot over the bar when it looked easier to score.

But he was submerged by delighted teammates when he forced home the winner, which was just reward for a display which highlighted why Simeone said on Monday that Inter were one of the five best teams in Europe.

However the tight nature of the tie was evident when substitute Alvaro Morata headed wide when presented with a great chance to take Atletico back to Madrid level.