Porto host Manchester City at Estádio do Dragão on Tuesday, September 8, in the opening round of the Champions League's league phase, with kickoff scheduled for 4pm Brasília time.
The fixture is among the first matches of the competition's league phase, the format UEFA introduced to replace the traditional group stage. The Champions League is UEFA's flagship annual club competition, bringing together clubs from across Europe that qualify through their domestic performance. In the league phase, each of the competing clubs plays eight different opponents before a single combined table determines who advances.
Under the rules, clubs from the same country cannot be drawn against each other at this stage, and no team can face more than two opponents from the same national association. The draw, which also decides which side hosts each match and the order of fixtures, is carried out with former players helping to pull the balls, while software is used to apply the competition's restrictions.
Standings after all eight rounds decide qualification. The top eight teams go straight through to the round of 16, while the clubs finishing between ninth and 24th place enter a playoff round for the remaining spots.
How to watch Porto vs Manchester City
In Brazil, the match will be shown on pay-TV channel Space and streamed on HBO Max, with CNN Esportes providing live text coverage.
Porto's league phase schedule
- Manchester City (home)
- Liverpool (away)
- PSV (home)
- Real Betis (away)
- Napoli (home)
- Feyenoord (away)
- Slavia Prague (home)
- LASK (away)
Manchester City's league phase schedule
- Paris Saint-Germain (home)
- Barcelona (away)
- Sporting (home)
- Porto (away)
- Napoli (home)
- RB Leipzig (away)
- AEK Athens (home)
- Lens (away)
Porto have won Europe's premier club competition twice, under José Mourinho in 2004 and previously in 1987. Manchester City, managed by Pep Guardiola, won the title in 2023. Estádio do Dragão, which opened in 2003 and holds around 50,000 spectators, is Porto's home ground and regularly stages the club's European fixtures.
