NewsWhy Liverpool cannot play Real Madrid at Anfield in 2026-27 UCL league phase

The Reds have hosted Los Blancos at Anfield in the competition's opening section for the past two campaigns.

But the European governing body introduced a ruling that aims to avoid the same fixture occurring in the league phase for three successive years.

However, Andoni Iraola's side being set up with a trip to face Real at the Bernabeu does remain a possibility in Thursday's draw.

Paragraph 16.03 of last season's Champions League regulations read: "UEFA administration may determine alternative conditions for the draw in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee and may adapt any of the conditions of the draw to avoid deadlock situations and/or take into account any relevant constraints in light of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee.

"The UEFA Club Competitions Committee has determined an additional condition that may be applicable to the UEFA Champions League draw for the 2026/27 season, deciding that any individual fixture between the same two teams may not be repeated in the same competition with the same home team for three consecutive seasons.

"This means that if any teams that already played against each other in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League in the 2024/25 season are again drawn against each other, with the same home team, in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League in this 2025/26 season, those teams will not be able to be drawn against each other with the same home team in the 2026/27 season."

• Register your interest for Anfield matchday hospitality for the league-phase games here

Liverpool won both of their previous league-phase encounters with Real.

In 2024-25, the first season of the revamped format, second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo secured a 2-0 victory.

Mac Allister was the only scorer nearly 12 months later with a 61st-minute header off Dominik Szoboszlai's free-kick.