MONACO (AP) — Real Madrid will have rematches of the final from its past three Champions League title wins, against Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, in its eight-game schedule in the new format of European soccer’s signature event.
Madrid has added France superstar Kylian Mbappé to its stellar team since beating Dortmund in last season’s final. It also beat Liverpool in the 2022 and 2018 finals among its record 15 European titles. Madrid will host Dortmund and travel to Liverpool, though the match dates won't be confirmed until Saturday.
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Cristiano Ronaldo, the all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League, receives a special award from UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin in recognition of his achievements in the competition, while Former Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon looks on at right, during the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
MONACO (AP) — Real Madrid will have rematches of the final from its past three Champions League title wins, against Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, in its eight-game schedule in the new format of European soccer’s signature event.
Former Juventus and PSG Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon receives the 2024 UEFA President's Award from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin during the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The trophy is displayed in the hall ahead of the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The trophy is displayed in the hall ahead of the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Cristiano Ronaldo, the all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League, receives a special award from UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin in recognition of his achievements in the competition, while Former Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon looks on at right, during the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Former Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon holds a ticket for Juventus during the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
UEFA's Giorgio Marchetti watches player Cristiano Ronaldo press a button to proceed with the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Manchester City also gets a Champions League final reunion — hosting Inter Milan which it beat to win its European title in 2023.
Bayern Munich will host Paris Saint-Germain in a rematch of the 2020 final that the German giant won 1-0.
Defending champion Madrid’s slate of opponents also include home games against seven-time European champion AC Milan, Salzburg and Stuttgart with trips to Atalanta — the Europa League winner that Madrid beat in the UEFA Super Cup this month — and twice to France, to play Lille and debutant Brest.
A complex draw ceremony in Monaco gave eight-team slates of opponents for all 36 teams in the bigger and more lucrative Champions League.
The traditional 32-team group stage played each season since 2003 was abolished in favor of a single-standings league. Now, 36 teams each will play eight games against eight different opponents through January.
The top eight in the standings in January go direct to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth to 24th go into the knockout playoffs in February. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.
Man City's away games at PSG and Juventus were balanced by one of the easier slates of home games: against Club Brugge, Feyenoord and Sparta Prague. The English champion also must travel to Slovan Bratislava.
Bayern also will host Barcelona, which it routed 8-2 in the quarterfinals of the 2020 title run, and travel to Aston Villa, the surprise winner of their 1982 European Cup final.
Liverpool will host Bayer Leverkusen, the German champion coached by its former star midfielder Xabi Alonso, in a standout match of the expanded league phase.
Leverkusen will host city rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan, and also travel to Atlético Madrid.
The new-style draw was made at a gala ceremony in a beach-side concert hall in Monaco with soccer greats Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianluigi Buffon.
After each team’s ball was picked by Buffon from one of four bowls — seeded according to results in the past five years of European club competitions — Ronaldo theatrically pressed a button for the reveal of how a software program allocated two opponents from each of the four seeding pots.
The new format was created by UEFA under pressure from influential clubs who wanted more guaranteed games and a wider variety of high-profile opponents.
The new league phase will have 144 total games compared to 96 in the group stage last season. By also adding a new knockout playoffs round in February, the competition overall has 189 games instead of 125.
The 36 teams will share a UEFA prize money fund of at least 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion), a raise of 25% on last season.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Cristiano Ronaldo, the all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League, poses as he arrives for the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Former Juventus and PSG Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon receives the 2024 UEFA President's Award from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin during the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The trophy is displayed in the hall ahead of the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The trophy is displayed in the hall ahead of the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Cristiano Ronaldo, the all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League, receives a special award from UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin in recognition of his achievements in the competition, while Former Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon looks on at right, during the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Former Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon holds a ticket for Juventus during the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
UEFA's Giorgio Marchetti watches player Cristiano Ronaldo press a button to proceed with the Champions League, league phase, draw, in Monaco, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Earlier in this turbulent week for the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel joked that enough people had seen him cry.
The Dolphins coach was referring to a news conference in which he choked back tears while reflecting on a controversial traffic stop involving Tyreek Hill hours before Miami's season opener. Five days later, McDaniel sat down for another news conference not 24 hours after a Thursday night game against the Buffalo Bills, and he again couldn't hide his emotions.
His quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, is in the concussion protocol, dealing with his third diagnosed concussion in three years after colliding head-first with defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
McDaniel ran onto the field to check on Tagovailoa, who sat up after a few minutes and was helped to his feet by trainers. As McDaniel walked with Tagovailoa to the sideline, he gave his quarterback a kiss on the side of the head.
“I told him he’s the starting quarterback of his family,” McDaniel said Friday morning, speaking slowly and somberly as he recounted the moment, “and to go in the locker room, take a deep breath and I’ll see you soon.”
The game Thursday was in part about rallying past another emotional event that Miami players and coaches described as both triggering and troubling.
All-Pro receiver Hill has been at the center of a national debate on the use of force by police after body camera footage showed the traffic stop escalated quickly after a verbal dispute between Hill and Miami-Dade police officers.
Hill put up the window of his car despite an officer's instruction to keep it open. After a back and forth about the window, the video shows an officer pull Hill out of his car by his arm and head and then force him face-first onto the ground near Hard Rock Stadium. Officers handcuffed Hill and one put a knee in the middle of his back.
The altercation, and what was seen on the six officers’ bodycam videos, has again brought to the forefront conversations surrounding the experience of Black people with police.
“What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what that guy or guys would have done,” Hill said hours after the incident. “I was just making sure that I was doing what my uncle always told me to do whenever you’re in a situation like that: just listen, put your hands on the steering wheel and just listen. You’ve got to be careful.”
Police Department Director Stephanie Daniels put Officer Danny Torres on administrative duty, and an internal affairs investigation is underway. The department released the identity of Torres, a 27-year veteran of the department, on Tuesday.
Hill has since said he could have handled some parts of the initial interaction better, but he and some teammates also said they would be able to separate the incident from their football duties.
“I think that’s the beauty of the sport,” said offensive lineman Terron Armstead. "You get a chance to escape real-world issues for that time slot. I think there’s no better place in the world that Tyreek could’ve been following that but a locker room and a football game. That’s the beauty of that sport, that you get that time to escape and enter a world that is kind of a fantasy for us.”
Hill caught an 80-yard touchdown pass that helped Miami come from behind to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars that day, but Hill and the Dolphins weren't able to replicate that magic on Thursday.
Hill was limited to three catches and 24 yards, and Miami's offense was stifled in a 31-10 loss to their division rivals.
Losing to the Bills again was hard enough. Buffalo has won 12 of the last 13 meetings between them. That disappointment was overshadowed by fear, uncertainty and concern for Tagovailoa.
“Stuff like this, losses are tough,” McDaniel said. "Ones that you’ve really built yourself up to try to get done ... that’s really tough and then you have your heart completely involved with it — I look at Tua as a family member of mine. When family is going through something, you know how it is. You’re trying to think about a ton of different stuff that people are counting on me to think about. Not easy.”
Players from both teams immediately waved for trainers when Tagovailoa went down after scrambling for a first down.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air. He appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was a movement consistent with something referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a brain injury.
He was immediately diagnosed with a concussion — his third since joining the Dolphins as the fifth-overall pick in 2020.
McDaniel said Friday there are more unknowns surrounding the situation than certainty at this point. He said the Dolphins will bring in another quarterback eventually, but he did not want to rush to judgment on any timelines, or on Tagovailoa's future in the NFL.
“For me, I absolutely positively will not do anything to make anything worse or hurt any one of our players, ” McDaniel said, “specifically guys that are in concussion protocol. Ironically, I think there’s a lot of people that have vested interest in the Miami Dolphins. There’s a lot of fans and there’s a lot of people that want to support, but quite literally, questioning timelines, that gives forth anxiety.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) and Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) collide during the second half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Tagovailoa suffered a concussion on the play. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) lies on the field after suffering a concussion during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel talks to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) as he leaves the game after suffering a concussion during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel talks during a news conference following an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
