Is it delivering? First impressions of new Champions League format

The first round of Champions League games are over - and you can watch highlights of every game on the BBC Sport website.

The format is new this season - with one giant league of 36 teams, instead of 32 teams spread across eight groups.

BBC Sport looks at what happened in the first round of games and how the revamped competition looks.

This new 'league phase' - instead of lots of groups all containing four teams - is going to take some getting used to.

One big table with 36 teams is something we do not even see in league football, and taking it all in involves some serious scrolling. You can check out the full thing here.

Remember, teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.

Whoever finishes 25th or lower will be eliminated. So only one-third of teams actually go out after everyone plays eight games.

According to Opta, 16 points from a possible 24 gives a 98% chance of a top-eight finish.

Ten points is 99% likely to lead to a top-24 finish, so teams who won this week only need two more wins and a draw for a chance of reaching the last 16.

Fifteen teams won their opening games (meaning 15 teams lost) which leaves six clubs in between on one point.

In a nutshell, if you won you've got a great chance of going through. If you lost... you've still got a great chance of going through.

It is too early to read into patterns of results... but the top seeds dropped more points this time compared to the first round of group games last year.

Last season six of the eight won, with one drawing and one losing.

This year there were nine top seeds, with five winning, two drawing (against each other) and two losing.

And the bottom seeds fared much better.

Four of the nine teams in 'pot four' won - including Aston Villa. Last year none of the bottom eight seeds won their first group game.

One of the benefits of the new format is more games between the biggest teams.

Unlike in the past, each top seed will face another two teams from the top pot too.

The only match between pot one sides this time was Manchester City v Inter Milan... which ended goalless.

But that wasn't the only eye-catching fixture in the opening round, with Liverpool meeting AC Milan in a repeat of the 2005 and 2007 finals. The Premier League side won 2-1 on Tuesday.

Big matches coming up soon, not necessarily all top seeds, are Arsenal v Paris St-Germain in the next batch of games, plus Real Madrid v Borussia Dortmund - a repeat of last year's final.

Barcelona v Bayern Munich is in the following round of fixtures - albeit those two heavyweights only met in the group stage as recently as two years ago.

It was a good opening for the five British teams in the Champions League - with three wins and two draws.

Celtic beat Slovan Bratislava 5-1, Aston Villa saw off Young Boys 3-0 and Liverpool won 3-1 at AC Milan.

Manchester City and Arsenal both played out goalless draws with Italian teams, Serie A champions Inter Milan and Europa League winners Atalanta respectively.

Harry Kane scored four goals for Bayern Munich as they smashed Dinamo Zagreb 9-2. That already takes him halfway to last season's Golden Boot total.

Three other players scored two goals, all for German clubs - Borussia Dortmund's England Under-21 winger Jamie Gittens, Bayern's Michael Olise and Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz.

The goalkeeper with the most memorable impact in the first round of games was Arsenal's David Raya, who performed a stunning double save - including a penalty stop - to deny Atalanta striker Mateo Retegui.

The teams who might be happiest with their work were Celtic, who scored five goals in a Champions League game for the first time, and Sparta Prague.

Sparta, in their first main draw Champions League game for 19 years, beat Salzburg 3-0.

French side Brest, who were making their debut in any European competition, beat Sturm Graz 2-1.

Girona, also playing a European game for the first time, were seconds away from a draw at Paris St-Germain before Paulo Gazzaniga's own goal.

Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.