Cypriot champions Pafos FC have a mouthwatering tie ahead of them in this year’s Champions League, having been drawn to play German juggernaut Bayern Munich at home.
Bayern Munich are the defending German champions and have won the Champions League six times, most recently in 2020, with their current roster featuring England captain Harry Kane, and other bona fide global stars including Manuel Neuer, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, and Luis Diaz, who signed from Liverpool this summer.
In total, Pafos FC will play four home games in this year’s league phase, with the other three fixtures coming against Spain’s Villarreal, Czech outfit Sparta Prague, and Monaco, whose roster includes France’s World Cup winning star Paul Pogba, among other household names.
The Cypriot side’s away games are even more mouthwatering, however, with trips to world champions Chelsea, Italian giants Juventus, Greek champions Olympiacos, and Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty all to look forward to.
Kairat Almaty are the easternmost football club to qualify for the Champions League, with Almaty being situated in Kazakhstan’s far east. They qualified after pulling off a major upset over Scottish side Celtic on Tuesday night.
The dates of Pafos FC’s eight fixtures will be announced no later than Saturday.
Aside from Pafos FC, the pick of the ties will see 15-time champions Real Madrid travel to six-time champions Liverpool, with that fixture having become something of a grudge match after the two sides met in the finals of 2018 and 2022, and after Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold transferred to Real Madrid this summer.
He will now make a swift return to Anfield, with the home fans expected to give him a less than warm reception.
A more welcome homecoming will see Manchester City legend Kevin de Bruyne, now of Napoli, return to the Etihad Stadium when those two sides play each other, while in addition to their match-up with Pafos FC, Olympiacos will have the treat of playing against both Real Madrid and Barcelona.
This season is Pafos FC’s first venture into the Champions League, with the club being only the island’s third to make it this far.
They qualified for the league phase on Tuesday night by beating the European champions of 1991, Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade, 3-2 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw on the night at a packed Alphamega Stadium in Limassol.
Only two other Cypriot clubs and on only five occasions historically have Cypriot clubs made it this far in the Champions League, with all five occasions coming during the era of the old 32-team group stage format.
The first round of league phase fixtures will take place between September 16 and September 18, with the final round set to see all 36 teams play simultaneously on January 28 next year.
Should Pafos FC make it all the way, the Champions League final will be played on May 30 next year at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
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