Clarence Seedorf
Four-time Champions League winner Clarence Seedorf on BBC Radio 5 Live

We’ll have to live with it [the new Champions League format] to see if we like it. I was definitely okay with the format and how it was but they’ve chosen to make some changes and I think we need to give them the time to see if it works out.

In life it’s also nice to create an expectation.

Some interesting benefits for sure for the fans.

What do you think?

Will the new Champions League format - replacing the former group stage with an extended league phase - provide more competitive matches?

The top eight in the 36-team league will automatically go through to the competition's last-16, while those sides that finish from ninth down to 24th will go into a play-off, which is effectively an extra knockout round.

Send us your thoughts on this format by using the contact details at the top of the page.

Alistair Bruce-Ball told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast that he believed the new format for this season's Champions League - replacing the group stages with a new extended league phase - would provide more competitive games and guarantees lower-ranked sides, like Aston Villa, the chance to play more of the competition's more established sides.

He said: "My issue with the older format [of the Champions League], I often felt that you’d get to the last two group games and groups could very easily have been decided by then. Manchester City, for example, winning the first four and then the last two wouldn’t mean very much. That in effect could still happen.

"But you are going to get those teams that finish between 9th and 24th that are then going to be in jeopardy because they’re going to go into a two-legged knockout play-off to get through to the last 16.

"For Aston Villa, back at this level of football for 40 years, Young Boys today then Bayern Munich at home, I bet the Villa fans cannot wait."

BBC Radio 5 Live

Here is a full list of this week's Champions League commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live. Just click on the links to go to the commentary page:

Tuesday, 17 September

Young Boys v Aston Villa (17:45)

AC Milan v Liverpool (20:00)

Wednesday, 18 September

Manchester City v Inter Milan (20:00)

Thursday, 19 September

Atalanta v Arsenal (20:00)

Alistair Bruce-Ball
Commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live

As younger players, you’ve trained on these sorts of surfaces [artificial pitch], you don’t play on these surfaces regularly but Young Boys have played on this pitch for a while.

Manchester City came here last season, won on it, had no problems. It takes getting used to but neither Unai Emery nor Youri Tielemans were in any way going to use it as a potential excuse before the game kicks off.

Image source, Getty Images

Alistair Bruce-Ball will be commentating for BBC Radio 5 Live on Aston Villa's match at Swiss side Young Boys.

You can listen to that commentary on 5 Live and BBC Sounds from 17:45 BST.

He spoke further on 5 Live Breakfast about some of the challenges facing Unai Emery's Villa side in Switzerland, including the artificial pitch at Young Boys' Wankdorf Stadium in Bern...

Alistair Bruce-Ball
Commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

I’ve seen the images of Gary Shaw following the tragic news. I remember sticking him in my Panini sticker books as a young lad.

And that’s the image I have of him and I think Villa fans will always have of him. Blonde hair, boyish looks.

Part of an incredible period for Aston villa. They’ve got nowhere near those heights since Gary Shaw played in that team.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Aston Villa fan Becky Fielding was on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast this morning, when she described the moment she met Gary Shaw at Villa Park: "I can imagine that he was as excited as the rest of us to see Villa doing so well again. He’s in the record books for Villa. I had the opportunity to meet Gary Shaw. As a season ticket holder you get options to go inside the ground and he gave talks to us and he was such a great guy. I extend my condolences to his family. What a great bloke he was. He made history at Villa. It’s very sad."

While this evening's Champions League opener will be a poignant moment for Aston Villa and the club's supporters, Becky said the overriding emotion would be one of excitement ahead of their "dream" return to the top flight of European football: "I've watched Villa going back down in the Championship, having some of the poorest seasons of football, not doing very well.

"It’s a whole dream for me. It’s not just a dream for me but for my kids as well. They’ve followed them since they were babies and now they’re getting the opportunity to go and see them in Champions League football."

Ged Scott
BBC Sport

Together, the combination of big target man Peter Withe and quicksilver Gary Shaw alongside him turned Villa first into league champions in May 1981, then European champions in 1982.

In the league, as part of a Villa side that used just 14 players in 42 games, they notched a combined 38 goals (Withe's 20 to Shaw's 18) to earn the club a first league title in 71 years.

And, although the goals comparatively dried in the league the following season as Shaw missed 16 games through injury, he and Withe both scored three times each en route to beating Bayern Munich 1-0 to win the European Cup in Rotterdam.

For those of you who were not aware of Gary Shaw or the important role he played in Aston Villa's history - he was the poster boy for Ron Saunders all-conquering Aston Villa side for what turned out to be an all-too brief period in the late 1970s and early 80s.

Shaw was named the Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year in 1981 after his goals helped Villa win a first Division One title for decades and then the European Young Player of the Year in 1982 following their stunning European Cup success.

The Daily Express

The sad news about Gary Shaw dominates today's newspapers, the majority of which lead on Aston Villa manager Unai Emery's poignant call for his players to win this evening's Champions League opener at Young Boys as the perfect tribute to one of the heroes of the club's 1982 European Cup triumph.

The Express features a picture of Shaw proudly holding the European Cup during a homecoming parade in Birmingham...

Image source, Daily Express

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery wants his side to win their opening Champions League game against Young Boys on Tuesday in memory of the club's European Cup winner Gary Shaw.

Former striker Shaw, who died on Monday at the age of 63, was in the Villa team that triumphed in the competition back in 1982.

Tuesday evening marks their return to Europe's top-tier club competition for the first time in 41 years, and Emery feels a win would be the perfect tribute to Shaw.

"My condolences to the family and all the supporters at Villa," he said.

"We have a memory always, in our training ground a picture of 1982 and the European Cup, he was a protagonist of that. My condolences to them.

"I think it's sad and we can use it as motivation."

Click here to read more.

Image source, Getty Images

Today

Aston Villa, back in the competition for the first time since 1982-83, travel to Swiss side Young Boys at 17:45 BST.

Liverpool travel to AC Milan - the Reds' opponents in the 2005 and 2007 finals - at 20:00 BST,

Tomorrow

Premier League champions Manchester City will face Inter Milan in their first match of this season’s Champions League - in a repeat of the 2023 final in Istanbul at 20:00 BST.

Scottish Premiership champions Celtic host Slovan Bratislava in their opener, also at 20:00 BST.

Thursday

And Arsenal kick off their campaign with a trip to Atalanta, facing a late trip back from Italy. It's a 20:00 BST kick off, just days before they travel to Manchester City in the Premier League. A potentially huge week for the Gunners, following their 1-0 win at north London rivals Tottenham on Sunday.

Read more.

Did you agree with the magic Champions League moments picked out by our pundits below?

No? Well please tell us your favourite memory from the competition - just get in touch via X, WhatsApp or text using the contact details above.

We would also love to know your thoughts on the new format and how you think it might change the nature of the competition, good or bad.

Just remember to include your name on any message...thanks.

The format may be different, but some things never change.

Season after season, the Champions League throws up brilliant games and magical moments, but if you were asked to pick a favourite would you able to narrow it down to just one?

That is what we have asked of our pundits, as well as their predictions for this season. Have a watch:

One thing that is immediately clear from those fixtures the British sides are facing in this season's Champions League is the variety of matches.

No longer will clubs be playing three teams, home and away, in a round-robin format.

The group stage has made way for an extended league phase, which is explained in the video at the top of this page.

One thing we know about football is that there are no guarantees.

Could one of the five British clubs taking part in this year's Champions League go all the way?

Here's a breakdown of which sides they will meet in the league phase:

Manchester City: Inter Milan (h), Paris St-Germain (a), Club Bruges (h), Juventus (a), Feyenoord (h), Sporting Lisbon (a), Sparta Prague (h), Slovan Bratislava (a)

Liverpool: Real Madrid (h), RB Leipzig (a), Bayer Leverkusen (h), AC Milan (a), Lille (h), PSV Eindhoven (a), Bologna (h), Girona (a)

Arsenal: Paris St-Germain (h), Inter Milan (a), Shakhtar Donetsk (h), Atalanta (a), Dinamo Zagreb (h), Sporting Lisbon (a), Monaco (h), Girona (a)

Aston Villa: Bayern Munich (h), RB Leipzig (a), Juventus (h), Club Bruges (a), Celtic (h), Young Boys (a), Bologna (h), Monaco (a)

Celtic: Aston Villa (a), Leipzig (h), Borussia Dortmund (a), Club Bruges (h), Atalanta (a), Young Boys (h), Dinamo Zagreb (a), Slovan Bratislava (h)

There is no doubt about the favourites for this year's competition.

Reigning champions Real Madrid strengthened further in the summer with the signing of France forward Kylian Mbappe from Paris St-Germain.

Could the 25-year-old star make the La Liga champions impossible to stop?

Click on the play icon below as BBC Sport examines how the allure of Real Madrid has enabled them to assemble a new team of young "Galacticos", as the Champions League holders aim to win a record-extending 16th European crown.

This season marks the start of a new era for the Champions League - for the first time you will be able watch highlights of Europe's showpiece competition on the BBC.

For the next three years, from 22:00 on the Wednesday of Champions League matchweeks, there will be match-by-match highlights available on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, plus a Match of the Day highlights show on BBC One at 22:40.

There will also be clips online and on social media.

You will also be able to follow all the action online and on the BBC Sport app through our live text coverage, as well as listen to radio commentary.

The competition will include five British clubs - Arsenal, Aston Villa, Celtic, Liverpool and Manchester City.

Good morning and welcome to today's football live page as we build up to tonight's return of the Champions League.

Stick with us as we explain the new extended league format and take you through the key match-ups and players to watch.

We will also have the latest team news ahead of tonight's games, as well as news conferences, with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola due to speak with the media from around 12:30 BST.

Image source, Getty Images