Thursday's Champions League draw came up with a fixture list with plenty of talking points for FC Barcelona ahead of this season's league stage of the competition. The blaugranes will face the current champions, the current Europa League champions as well as facing several well known opponents and another less so with plenty of travelling also on the horizon. 

Let's have a look at 10 take aways from the draw: 

Against the current champions 

One of the most appealing fixtures from the draw is the clash with Paris Saint-Germain. The French side are the reigning Champions League holders, having won the title for the second consecutive season in 2026, PSG defeating Arsenal in the final on penalties.  As a result, Hansi Flick's team will face the reigning champions of Europe's premier club competition during the league phase for the second consecutive season.

And also the Europa League champions

Barça will also come up against the reigning Europa League champions, Aston Villa. The English side defeated Freiburg 3-0 in the final to lift the trophy and claim their first silverware in 30 years. Therefore, two of Barça's opponents will arrive as reigning continental champions, with both Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa holding major European titles.

Rodri meets Manchester City

One of the most special reunions will be Rodri's return to face Manchester City. After spending several years in Manchester, the Barça midfielder will come up against his former side again just one season after leaving. The meeting comes at a particularly interesting time as FC Barcelona and Manchester City had not faced each other for almost ten years, with their last meeting dating back to the 2016/17 Champions League group stage, when the two sides went head-to-head in the competition's opening phase.

Return of Cesc to Spotify Camp Nou

Another of the major attractions of the draw will be Cesc Fàbregas's return to Spotify Camp Nou. The Catalan coach is currently in charge of Como 1907, one of the most exciting teams in Italian football. Fàbregas joined Como as a player back in  August 2022, when the club was competing in Serie B. A season later, he began his coaching career and, after taking over as head coach, guided the team first to promotion to the top flight and then on to qualification for the Champions League.

Barça and Como also met in 2025, on that occasion in the Joan Gamper Trophy at the Estadi Johan Cruyff. This time, however, Cesc will return home for an official match, and he will do so at Spotify Camp Nou.

Hello again to Luis Enrique... and Ferran

Meetings with teams coached by Luis Enrique have become a recurring feature of FC Barcelona's recent Champions League campaigns. The former Barça coach first came up against the Catalan side  in the quarter-finals of the 2023/24 campaign. He also faced Barcelona during the league phase of last season's competition.

In 2026/27 Barça will also come across another familiar face with Ferran Torres having moved to the side from the French capital just this summer. 

Galatasaray, another well known opponent 

Galatasaray are an opponent with plenty of history against Barcelona. The two teams have faced each other eight times in the Champions League, with a record that favours the blaugranes: five wins, two draws and one defeat.

They have not met in the Champions League since the 2002/03 season, although they have crossed paths more recently in the Europa League. That came in the Round of 16 of the 2021/22 campaign, when the first leg ended in a goalless draw before Barça secured a 2-1 victory in Istanbul to progress to the next round.

Gündogan another 

PSG will not be the only opponent featuring a former Barça player in their ranks. The Turkish side Galatasaray also have İlkay Gündoğan, who spent one season at Barcelona before moving on.

Familiar faces at Feyenoord

Feyenoord also have several links to FC Barcelona. The most obvious is their head coach, Giovanni van Bronckhorst. The former Dutch international was a Barça player between 2003 and 2007, having previously played for clubs including Feyenoord, Rangers and Arsenal. At Barça, he was an important member of the side that won the UEFA Champions League in 2006, starting the final in Paris against Arsenal.

In addition, the Rotterdam club's squad includes Mika Mármol, the defender from Terrassa who came through La Masia, FC Barcelona's youth academy.

New fixture

The draw has also produced a completely new opponent: Sabah FC. The Azerbaijani side have broken into Europe's elite against all expectations and will compete in the Champions League initial phase for the first time in their history.

Their presence is particularly remarkable given that the club is only nine years old as Sabah were founded only in 2017. In their debut season in the second division, they finished fifth but still secured promotion because none of the teams above them were able to meet the financial requirements to move up. The project reached its peak last season, when Sabah completed a league and cup double, bringing an end to Qarabag's dominance of Azerbaijani football.

There is another particularly noteworthy fact: it will be FC Barcelona's first-ever trip to Azerbaijan.

Paris and Lisbon to Istanbul and Baku

A mixture of destinations for Barça for their four away games in the Champions League initial phase. Nearby visits to Paris to take on PSG and to Lisbon to take on Sporting CP are balanced by further afield trips to Istanbul to meet Galatasaray and a trip to Baku in Azerbaijan to face Sabah FC. 

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