THE Champions League returns THIS WEEK with the biggest clubs from around Europe in action.
A record SIX Premier League sides will be looking to be crowned kings of the continent.
EPAChampions League football returns this week[/caption]
Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham make up the English contingent in this year’s Champions League.
All six sides will be hoping to get their European campaigns off to a winning start this week, but two clubs will have to wait until Thursday for their respective openers.
Man City’s clash with Napoli and Newcastle’s meeting with Barcelona are scheduled to take place on Thursday night.
SunSport brings you the reason why Champions League football is being played on a Thursday this week.
Why are Champions League games on Thursday?
In the new format of all three of Uefa’s European competitions, each will have a single exclusive matchweek during which fixtures from the other two contests will not be played.
The Champions League’s exclusive week has been assigned to matchweek one of the league phase, with matches scheduled across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
18 fixtures will be spread evenly across the three days (September 16-18).
Uefa launched the exclusive weeks last season, to allow more matches to be highlighted and fans to tune in to competitions they may not have previously watched.
The Europa League’s exclusive week will see matches take place across Wednesday, September 24 and Thursday, September 25.
While the Conference League has its turn on Thursday, December 18, with all fixtures taking place on one day.
Aside from each competition’s exclusive week, the regular programme of the Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, followed by the Europa League and Conference League on Thursdays, will continue.
What Champions League games are on Thursday?
Six Champions League matches will take place on Thursday this week, with two Prem clubs involved:
Club Brugge vs Monaco (5:45pm BST)
FC Copenhagen vs Bayer Leverkusen (5:45pm BST)
Manchester City vs Napoli (8pm BST)
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Galatasaray (8pm BST)
Sporting vs Kairat Almaty (8pm BST)
Newcastle vs Barcelona (8pm BST)
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