PSG Arsenal Rematch On the Cards in Champions League Draw
Three months on from the penalty shootout that settled the Champions League final, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal could be pulled out of the same bowl all over again. When the 2026-27 league phase draw is made in Monaco on Thursday at 17:00 BST, the two sides who could not be separated in May will both be sitting in pot one — and pot one teams do draw each other. A PSG Arsenal rematch is not the likeliest outcome of the afternoon. It is very much a possible one.
For Luis Enrique’s side, back-to-back European champions and Ligue 1 title-holders, Thursday is the first moment the season takes any real shape. Eight opponents, four away trips, four nights at the Parc — and, if the balls fall a certain way, an early rerun of the biggest night in the club’s history. The London Evening Standard has already raised the rematch as one of the ties Arsenal could be handed.
What Thursday’s draw actually decides
Thirty-six clubs go into the league phase. Twenty-nine of them qualified at the end of last season and the remaining seven places were settled by play-offs, as BBC Sport set out on Wednesday. Each team plays eight different opponents once, four at home and four away, with two coming from each of the four pots. Those pots are ranked on UEFA club coefficients across the five seasons ending in 2025-26.
The top eight in the single table go straight through to the round of 16. Ninth to 24th drop into the knockout play-off round. Anyone from 25th to 36th is out of Europe altogether once the league phase closes. For the full breakdown of where Paris sit and how the seedings were worked out, our guide to the draw and the pots has the detail. The draw itself is on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
Why a PSG Arsenal rematch is in play
Pot one reads like a shortlist for the trophy: Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Two of those names are coming onto Paris’s schedule, one way or another. Arsenal, who met Paris in last season’s final, are among them.
What narrows the field is the same-country rule. Clubs cannot be drawn against sides from their own association, and this season two French teams are in the pots — Lille in pot three and Lens in pot four. Neither can come out against Paris. It is a small quirk with a nice edge to it: Les Parisiens can meet Lille in Ligue 1, but not in Europe.
The rule UEFA added on Wednesday
There is one more constraint, and it is brand new. UEFA confirmed on Wednesday that a club cannot host the same opponent in three successive league phases. BBC Sport gave two worked examples: Liverpool will not draw Real Madrid at home, and Arsenal will not travel to Inter Milan. Crucially, both of those fixtures can still be drawn the other way round.
So the rule shapes venues rather than opponents. It cannot keep a tie out of the draw entirely, only decide which half of it is at home. For a PSG support that has spent two seasons watching this team win everywhere it goes, that is a detail worth knowing before 17:00 — a marquee name can still appear, just not always at the Parc des Princes.
Draw day at a club that keeps making history
Paris go into this one from a position no French club has occupied before: two European Cups in two years, on top of the sextuple of 2024-25, and a president who called the second one a historic feat. Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s side had already joined an exclusive group by reaching back-to-back finals, never mind winning them both.
Thursday adds the names. Eight of them, drawn from a pool that includes the team Paris beat on penalties in May. Monaco, 17:00 BST — and then Les Parisiens find out how hard the defence of this trophy is going to be.
