4 hours ago
2
ByTasnim Chowdhury
BBC Sport journalist
Champions League on a Thursday night? The fixtures calendar has thrown that anomaly at us this week, with Manchester City, Newcastle United and Barcelona among the teams in action.
In the new format of the men's Champions League, one exclusive week per season has been set aside where matches will be played across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
No other games in Uefa competitions - Europa or Conference League - will be scheduled.
There will be no waiting around for the Champions League's exclusive week as it has been assigned to matchday one of the league phase - with games spread across 16-18 September.
Supporters and audiences have been accustomed to a diet of Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, followed by Europa League and Conference League on Thursdays, and by and large that will be the format again in 2025-26.
The exclusive weeks were launched last season and are continuing in the new campaign, with the concept allowing Uefa a chance to showcase its major men's European club competitions.
That means the Europa League and Conference League also each have one exclusive week.
For the Europa League exclusive week, matches will be played across two days - Wednesday, 24 September and Thursday, 25 September.
In the case of the Conference League, the exclusive week is a one-night situation - with matches taking place on Thursday, 18 December. But it will draw the full focus as no other European competition games are billed for the Tuesday or Wednesday.
What Champions League matches are on Thursday?
Six Champions League matches will take place this Thursday:
Club Brugge v Monaco (17:45 BST)
FC Copenhagen v Bayer Leverkusen (17:45 BST)
Manchester City v Napoli (20:00 BST)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Galatasaray (20:00 BST)
Sporting v Kairat Almaty (20:00 BST)
Newcastle v Barcelona (20:00 BST)
This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.
What is Ask Me Anything?
Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your questions.
We want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you do.
The team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts including our experts and pundits.
We will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world's biggest sporting events.
Our coverage will span the BBC Sport website, app, social media and YouTube accounts, plus BBC TV and radio.
