If Liverpool and Real Madrid come out of the pots together at the Grimaldi Forum on Thursday, one option is already off the table. There will be no third straight visit by Real Madrid to Anfield.
The reason sits in paragraph 16.03 of the Champions League regulations, which states that “any individual fixture between the same two teams may not be repeated in the same competition with the same home team for three consecutive seasons”. Liverpool have hosted Real Madrid in each of the last two league phases, and the clause blocks a third at Anfield in a row.
Both meetings went the home side’s way. Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo struck in the 52nd and 76th minutes of a 2-0 win on 27 November 2024, with Kylian Mbappé and Mohamed Salah both missing penalties. A year later, on 4 November 2025, Mac Allister’s second-half header from a Dominik Szoboszlai free kick sealed a 1-0 win that left both clubs level on nine points after four matchdays.
An away fixture at the Santiago Bernabéu is not caught by the rule, so the two clubs can still meet when the draw is made at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco from 6pm local time on Thursday. Both are in Pot 1 alongside PSG, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.
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Why paragraph 16.03 exists
The clause is a product of the format that replaced the traditional group stage in 2024-25. With clubs now facing eight different opponents rather than three, the chances of the same tie recurring have risen, and the same home draw in successive years is common enough that UEFA has felt the need to stop it happening three times in a row.
For most Pot 1 pairings the clause never bites. It matters here because the last two draws produced Liverpool at home to Real Madrid rather than the reverse.
What is set for Thursday
The draw runs on the computer-assisted system UEFA introduced with the new format. Each of the 36 clubs is paired with eight opponents, two from each of the four seeded pots, and each side plays four home matches and four away. Clubs from the same association cannot meet in the league phase, and no team faces more than two opponents from any one country.
Fixtures and kick-off times will be released in the days after the draw.
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