Arsenal-Madrid, PSG-Barça highlight UCL draw

Paris Saint-Germain have been handed a tough start to the defense of their Champions League trophy, with the visit of coach Luis Enrique's former side Barcelona as well as trips to 2023 winners Manchester City and Europa League holders Aston Villa. Last year's beaten finalists Arsenal also face an unenviable league phase schedule, up against record 15-time winners Real Madrid along with German duo Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. In other standout matchups revealed in Thursday's draw in Monaco, Manchester United -- on their return to the competition after a two-year absence -- face a rematch of their famous 1999 final triumph against Bayern. After returning to Real Madrid this summer, coach José Mourinho will be faced with another familiar opponent in Inter Milan, the club he led to Champions League glory in 2010 before departing for his first spell at the Bernabéu. There were four debutantes in the draw: Como from Italy, coached by Cesc Fàbregas; LASK of Austria; Viking from Norway; and Azerbaijani champion Sabah, who were founded only in 2017. Como face a trip to Fàbregas' former club Barcelona, as well welcoming PSG and Man United to Italy. UEFA's draw software allocated eight opponents to each team -- four home games, four away -- with two opponents taken from each seeding pot. Seeding was decided by ranking a team's European results over the past five years. Teams were prevented from being paired with an opponent from their own country. The first round of games is played Sept. 8-10 with the first six rounds played through December. The league phase resumes in January with the eighth and final round on Jan. 27. The full match schedule for each team will be revealed on Saturday. The top eight teams in the final standings go direct to the round of 16 in March. Teams placed ninth to 24th enter the knockout playoffs in February to decide the other eight teams in the round of 16. Teams placed 25th to 36th are eliminated. The 36 teams will share prize money of about €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) The Associated Press contributed to this report.