Even though the 2023-2024 season has not finished yet, at least formally given the deadline of June 30 at midnight, the 2024-2025 UEFA Champions League is already underway: between Tuesday 18 June and Wednesday the 19th of June, the UEFA headquarters in Nyon hosted the drafts for the qualifying rounds.

Now at their 4th appearance in the last 6 seasons, Atalanta will take part in the 70th edition overall of the main European footballing pageant, the 33rd since its renaming in UEFA Champions League and the first to adopt the new format.

Namely, the new framework will see the overhaul of the former group stage into a league stage comprising up to 36 teams as its most prominent change. Each Club is to face 8 different teams (four at home at four away). While the first eight outfits in the standings gain direct access to the RO16, the squads sitting between the 9th and the 24th place will take part in the play-off stage for the eight remaining Round of 16 spots. From then on, the knockout stage will forge ahead as usual.

In the drafting of the eight individual opponents, all teams will be divided in four tiers: each team will be thus be pitted against two different outfits per tier (one at home and one away) against the two squads of each bracket.

With the first official matches kicking off on July 9 2024, the 2024/25  UCL will draw to its Grand Finale in Munich on May 31 2025.

Skipping the preliminary stage, Atalanta will participate directly into the League stage, whose draft is scheduled for the 29th of August 2024.

Here is the preliminary “League Stage” fixture list:
MD1: September 17 to 19 2024
MD2: October 1 to 2 2024
MD3: October 22 to 23 2024
MD4: November 5 to 6 2024
MD5: November 26 to 27 2024
MD6: December 10 to 11 2024
MD7: January 21 to 22 2025
MD8: January 29 2025

Dates and kick-off times TBD.