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UCL Advertisement live Updated 3m ago Arsenal begin their quest for a long-awaited first Champions League title today with a trip to Athletic Club in Bilbao. The two sides meet in matchday 1 of the group phase of the Champions League at the impressive San Mames Stadium. Athletic Club reached last season’s Europa League semi-final while Arsenal went out at the same stage in the Champions League. Athletic Club had a boost late last week after they finally signed Aymeric Laporte from Al Nassr after not completing the deal during the summer transfer window. Laporte has signed a contract until 2028 with the La Liga side. Athletic initially had issues registering Laporte but eventually saw those concluded to bring the defender back to the club. The 31-year-old made 222 appearances for Athletic during his first spell of around six years. Advertisement The first matchweek of this season's Champions League concludes with six more games on Thursday evening, all kicking off at 8pm BST, 3pm ET unless specified. There are six more Champions League matches played tomorrow, two in the earlier kick-off slot of 5. 45pm BST, 12. 45pm ET, the rest in the 8pm BST, 3pm ET slate. First, it's: Then: There’s plenty of Champions League football happening over the next couple of days. Here’s a look at today’s matches, starting with the another 5. 45pm BST/12. 45pm ET kick off: And then at 8pm BST/3pm ET we have: We are now in the second season of the revised Champions League group phase format, so for those unfamiliar, let’s remind ourselves of how it all works. The new format has a ‘league phase’ rather than a ‘group stage’. Gone are the old groups of four and instead all the competing clubs are shoved together in one table. The 36 competing teams play eight matches, all against different opponents — rather than the old format of playing teams twice, once at home and once away. Once the league phase is complete, the top eight sides in the table qualify directly for a 16-team knockout round, with the other eight places decided by a newly introduced set of two-leg play-offs contested by the teams who finish between ninth and 24th in the league. Get it? No, we don’t blame you if not. The main thing is to keep winning to try and get a precious knock-out berth. We want to hear from you, be it a comment, question, observation or something else. Which side is favourite to win tonight? Will Viktor Gyokeres get on the score sheet? Or can Athletic cause an upset? Let us know your thoughts by emailing us at: live@theathletic. com and you could be featured in our coverage. Get typing. Advertisement The last time Athletic Club played in the Champions League? Over ten years ago, in the 2014-15 season. The Basque club have had a trio of Europa League campaigns in the interim but the last time they played in Europe’s top continental competition, Aritz Arduriz was their top scorer for the season and they exited at the group stage. Let’s see if they can go one better this time and reach the knock-outs. A reminder, if you are unaware, that Athletic Club are pretty unique in world football. The fact that they have achieved so much success — even qualifying for the Champions League shout be considered as such — is nothing short of remarkable given they have a self-imposed rule on only selecting players from the Basque Country. That means only players from the region of northern Spain and southern France, with a population of a little more than three million, represent them. It is a self-imposed policy the club calls a ‘philosophy’, marking them out as uniquely distinct from other teams. As for Arsenal? Well they had their own summer dominated by transfer talk but it was arrivals rather than potential departures that generated headlines. Mikel Arteta’s side spent big to land new faces in key positions with Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze among the marquee signings. And most pleasing of all to Arsenal fans, England international Eze signed right under the nose of rivals Tottenham Hotspur who were said to be nearing a deal when Arsenal swooped in. One story rumbled on — and led to plenty of internal conflict between fans — at Athletic this summer. It all centred on the future of young star Nico Williams, who looked set to move to La Liga rivals Barcelona until his proposed transfer collapsed. It all broke down because the player wanted an exit clause inserted into his contract in case they could not register him — and the Catalan club refused. With key personal terms already verbally agreed, the deal was sunk when the 22-year-old’s representatives made the request and Barcelona’s sporting director Deco said the club would not sanction it, despite having done so with other signings in the recent past, including Dani Olmo. Barca have often struggled to register new signings in time for the season start in recent years — with Olmo’s only secured thanks to a court ruling last term. And with an identical record to their opponents today, Athletic Club have also enjoyed a strong start to the season. Three wins from four leaves them fourth in La Liga, with defeat against Alaves the only blight on their record thus far. They will have a tough task ahead to match their fourth-placed finish from last season, which helped them qualify for the Champions League. Advertisement The early part of the domestic season has been pretty positive for Arsenal, with Mikel Arteta’s men securing three wins from their first four Premier League matches. That leaves them second in the table to Liverpool — the team who inflicted their first and only defeat of the campaign. The top two currently looks how last season finished with Arne Slot’s side ahead of Arsenal. Can they flip the script this year? This was a big bit of news from last week — Athletic Club defender Yeray Alvarez has been handed a 10-month suspension by UEFA following a positive doping test. The centre-back tested positive for the banned substance canrenone in a UEFA-authorised doping test following his side’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester United in the first leg of last season’s Europa League semi-final on May 1 this year. The findings of UEFA’s disciplinary body determined that Yeray committed an anti-doping violation that was “non-intentional”. The 30-year-old accepted a voluntary provisional suspension on June 2, which will now expire on April 2, 2026 following the outcome of European football’s governing body. This is the first time these two teams have met in a competitive fixture, despite already playing each other earlier in the year in a pre-season friendly. In that match, held at the Emirates in August, new signing Viktor Gyokeres scored his first goal for Arsenal. Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz also got on the score sheet in a 3-0 win. Well, good job The Athletic is on hand and has compiled an utterly subjective ranking of all 36 teams in this year’s competition. From lowest-ranked Kairat Almaty to last season’s winners Paris Saint Germain, you can dive into our rankings on the link below. A clue: both of today’s teams are inside the top 15. .. GO FURTHER The Champions League: All 36 teams ranked and reviewed The Athletic is the best place to be for all sports fans. The Premier League is back in full swing and we are in the midst of a batch of European ties. In the golf, the Ryder Cup is coming up at the end of the month from Bethpage, New York. Plus there is coverage of NFL, college football, cycling and plenty beyond. You can follow all of that — and so much more — with us. Subscribe on an exclusive offer here. Advertisement Estadio San Mames, Bilbao What a host venue this is for a European night. The stadium, Athletic Club's San Mames, is a belter and holds in excess of 50, 000 fans and the city, Bilbao, is one of Europe's best. Located on Spain's northern coast, it is the biggest city in the Basque Country and hosted last season’s Europa League final between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, so it is no stranger to big European occasions. Fancy tuning in to the action live on TV ? Here's how you can do it. The match begins at an early kick off time of 6. 45pm BST, local time in Spain. That’s 5. 45pm for fans in the UK. Across the pond, that's 12. 45pm ET and 9. 45am PT on the east and west coast of the United States, respectively.