The Champions League draw is now complete and, with 144 matches scheduled, we have picked out 10 of the standout fixtures.

From former players going back to their old clubs to a clash between two notoriously difficult opponents, here are 10 dates worth circling in your calendar.

Cesc Fabregas is set for a return to Camp Nou, doing so with his Como side as they embark on their first-ever Champions League campaign.

Barcelona will start as overwhelming favourites and should, on paper, have too much for the Italian side, but Fabregas has earned praise for his coaching and may yet engineer an upset.

Given these two clubs sit second and sixth on the list of teams with the most European Cup ties played, this feels every bit like a classic Champions League fixture.

Old Trafford has not staged elite European football since 2023 and, in that season, Manchester United came up against Bayern Munich in the group stage.

The German side came out on top in both meetings and would again be expected to do so, although the fact that this one is at Old Trafford gives it a more competitive edge.

Depending on where it falls in the calendar, it could become a significant match for both teams and one that carries that unmistakable big European-night atmosphere.

Bodo/Glimt embodied the idea of being a brutally hard side to beat last season and they even managed to overcome the original hard men, Atletico, during the previous campaign.

That meeting took place in the far more agreeable conditions of Madrid, but Diego Simeone’s side will this time have to make the trip into the cold, dark reaches of Norway.

Can the Pot 3 side reproduce what they managed last year? The draw has been relatively kind to them, but Atletico, along with the trip to the Allianz, will represent their sternest challenge.

Inter, the club where Jose Mourinho is perhaps adored more than anywhere else, head to the Bernabeu for what has all the makings of a heavyweight European showdown.

Neither side may be quite at the level of the outright favourites for this season’s tournament, but both have made finals in recent years and Inter strolled to the Serie A title last season.

The head-to-head record is fairly balanced, with 10 wins for Madrid and seven for Inter, though the Spanish club have won six of the last seven meetings.

In recent seasons, this has felt like the Champions League final many believed should have happened, even if it did not, with both sides arguably the two strongest teams in Europe, certainly from an attacking point of view.

While PSG have won each of the last two editions of the competition, Barcelona have faltered, but it would not be a surprise if both are in Madrid by June.

This fixture also carries plenty of recent history. Both clubs were central to the Remontada, and the head-to-head record is perfectly balanced at six wins each, alongside four draws.

It is also a match-up that tends to bring goals. Neither team has kept a clean sheet in the last six meetings, and each of the last three encounters has produced at least three goals.

Outside El Clasico, this may be the European tie with the greatest concentration of superstars on the same pitch. Lamine Yamal, Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia offer the attacking firepower, while in midfield there is the contest of Vitinha and Joao Neves against the Rodri-reinforced Barca trio.

It may not be a knockout tie, but it could easily offer a preview of what lies ahead.

Turkey’s influence on top-level European football may have faded, but away trips there remain deeply unattractive assignments, especially for a manager who has never previously coached in continental competition.

Liverpool travel to Fenerbahce in the league phase, where the Turkish side boast a number of former Premier League players in N’Golo Kante, Romelu Lukaku and Mason Greenwood, the last of whom is certain to face a hostile reception from the travelling support.

It is a difficult assignment for Iroala and one that also puts pressure on the surrounding Premier League fixtures because of the additional travel involved.

Two of the competition’s leading contenders meet in Munich, with Arsenal having not won there since 2013.

The last time these sides met, however, it was Arsenal who came out on top, winning 3-1 in last season’s group stage, and both teams will head into this one believing they can prevail.

Both teams also ended last season in the top two of their respective league table.

Azerbaijani club Sabah are the lowest-ranked team in this season’s competition and their brutal draw has left them with virtually no chance of reaching the knockout rounds.

But, in truth, they do not care much about that because, while watching the draw unfold, the players celebrated after being paired away to Manchester United, giving them a rare opportunity to play at Old Trafford.

And while that sort of reaction is undeniably heart-warming, let us be honest and admit that everyone can picture United somehow making a complete mess of it.

Think Grimsby, only on a European scale. We are absolutely here for it.

Manchester City are involved in a trio of glamour fixtures, with City, PSG and Barcelona all due to face one another, but it is the trip to Camp Nou that creates the greatest intrigue.

Having met six times in the space of two and a half years, it is now nearly a decade since the two clubs last faced each other, and City have never won in Barcelona.

The Catalan side also hold a commanding record against City, having lost only one of the six matches and scored 12 goals across their five wins.

Pep Guardiola was beaten 4-0 on his only return to Camp Nou as City manager, with Lionel Messi scoring a hat-trick, and Barcelona would again look the more likely winners this time.

Rodri’s recent switch adds yet another layer of intrigue.

No other fixture comes with quite so many storylines.

Former Spurs and Chelsea manager Mourinho returns to the Emirates to take on a club he has lost to only three times. Vinicius Junior, the one who slipped away, heads to north London in white rather than red. And there is also the possibility of revenge for the thrashing Arsenal handed out two years ago.

Real Madrid clearly possess the stronger attack, but Arsenal have the superior defence, so while there is a risk that the two sides simply neutralise one another, there is also the possibility that it descends into complete and glorious chaos.