CL 2025/26 Preview
This week sees the return of the CL, with the 2025/26 season continuing with the same league phase format that was introduced last year. Liverpool and Barcelona are amongst the favourites ahead of the CL 2025/26 campaign, so let’s take a look at the upcoming tournament before it kicks off this week!
A new football season is well underway, which also means we have a new CL campaign to look forward to, and the league phase kicks off this week, with the first matches of the tournament to be played Tuesday evening.
Just like last year, the CL will be played with a league phase instead of the old group stage format, so let’s first of all take a quick look at the teams that are in this season’s tournament:
Ajax
Arsenal
Atalanta
Athletic Bilbao
Atlético Madrid
Barcelona
Bayer Leverkusen
Bayern Munich
Benfica
Bodo
Borussia Dortmund
Chelsea
Club Brugge
Copenhagen
Eintracht Frankfurt
Galatasaray
Inter Milan
Juventus
Kairat
Liverpool
Man City
Marseille
Monaco
Napoli
Newcastle
Olympiacos
Pafos
PSG
PSV
Qarabag
Real Madrid
Slavia Prague
Sporting CP
Tottenham
Union Saint-Gilloise
Villarreal
Who will go through as top 8?
The introduction of the league phase in the CL has for many followers of the tournament been a welcome one, with teams now playing 4 matches at home and 4 matches away in total. Unlike in the group stage format, each club now only plays their opponents once during the league phase, meaning each club gets to face 8 different clubs during the league phase.
Looking at our CL outrights, these are the teams currently favourites to make the top 8 in the league phase:
Barcelona, PSG, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea.
Starting with Barcelona, they travel to Newcastle in their first game before hosting PSG and Olympicaos. Then they are away at Club Brugge and Chelsea before hosting Eintracht Frankfurt, visiting Slavia Prague and then finishing off with a home match against Copenhagen. They’re going to want to get a result against Newcastle in the first match ahead of their tough second gameweek fixture against PSG, but in general, we don’t see Barcelona having too many issues with finishing top 8.
Defending champions PSG have these matches to look forward to in the league phase: Atalanta (H), Barcelona (A), Bayer Leverkusen (A), Bayern Munich (H), Tottenham (H), Athletic (A), Sporting (A), Newcastle (H). The French side would probably have liked a somewhat easier draw, especially considering they actually struggled last season to qualify from the league phase. Luis Enrique’s team should be good enough either way to get the points needed to grab a top 8 spot, though they do have some tough fixtures and will need to be aware of complacency against the teams they are expected to beat.
Liverpool is another team that are expected to go through to the next round without any major issues. The English champions host Atlético Madrid in their opening match before they travel to Galatasaray in their first away fixture. One of the highlights of the league phase will be their encounter with Real Madrid in Liverpool on matchday 4, with Eintracht Frankfurt and Inter amongst their other opponents during the league phase. Arne Slot’s team have had a great start to the season, winning all their first 4 league matches, including a late win against Burnley this weekend.
Arsenal are hopeful this season, and will visit Athletic away in their CL opener, before hosting Olympiacos and then Atlético Madrid in their subsequent fixtures. They’ll be expected to beat teams like Club Brugge (A) and Kairat (H), but Bayern Munich (H) and Inter (A) will be tough matches, and Arteta’s men need to be careful not to drop points in the games they’re expected to win. There are a lot of expectations surrounding Arsenal lately, with some of their new signings like Eze and Madueke off to a good start.
Real Madrid host Marseille in their opening game, before facing Kairat (A), Juventus (H), Liverpool (A) and Olympiakos (A). The Spanish team will be hoping to get off to a winning start in their first two matches before facing some very tough fixtures against Juventus and Liverpool. Man City, Monaco (both home) and Benfica (A) are their last three fixtures, and despite a few tricky matches, Real Madrid should definitely be good enough to grab a top 8 in the league phase and advance to the knockout stages.
Man City had a tough start to the campaign, but a win in the Manchester derby seems like the perfect way to turn things around ahead of their CL opener at home against Napoli. Monaco and Villarreal (both away) are both tough matches, but if Guardiola’s side are at their best, they’re still in with a good chance of winning both matches away from home. Their last game is at home to Galatarasay, with a few tricky matches in between, especially Real Madrid in the Spanish capital.
German league champions Bayern Munich host Chelsea in their CL opener, before they face Pafos (A), Club Brugge (H), PSG (A), Arsenal (A), Sporting (H), Union SG (H) and PSV (A). Although Arsenal and PSG away are very tricky matches, their fixture list has in general been very kind to them, and we don’t see them missing out on a top 8 this season.
Lastly, Chelsea are hoping to follow up their ECL and CWC success with a good run in this year’s CL, but they’ve been given a tough start away at Bayern in their opening match. Their remaining matches are Benfica (H), Ajax (H), Qarabag (A), Barcelona (H), Atalanta (A), Pafos (H) and Napoli (A). A trip to Azerbaijan is always tricky, but one would expect Chelsea to grab enough points here to go through, especially if players like Joao Pedro, Neto and Cole Palmer hit the ground running in Europe.
The Playoff Hopefuls
Behind the 8 favourites to qualify directly to the knockout stages are teams like Inter, Napoli, Spurs, Atlético Madrid, Newcastle and Juventus. Any of those teams could end up in the top 8, and this is where the introduction of the league phase really changes things around, with every game in the league phase affecting all the other teams.
All of the above teams should manage to at least secure a spot in the 9-24 bracket of the standings, with Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle amongst the odds favourites to end up in any of those spots.
Which teams are not expected to manage to sneak into this bracket? Kairat currently have the highest odds when it comes to ending in this bracket, with Qarabag not much lower. Slavia Prague and Pafos are amongst the other teams not expected to manage a place in the playoffs.
Winning Nation
From which country will this year’s CL winner come from? England is the odds favourites, ahead of Spain, France, Italy and Germany. With teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea all involved, it’s easy to understand why England are considered the favourite in this market, but Real Madrid and Barcelona are definitely contenders this season, as they are most seasons.
Arsenal and Liverpool are considered favourites to end up as the best English team in the league phase, with Barcelona considered stronger than Real Madrid in the same market for Spain.
What to Expect in the Opening Week
The opening week has a lot of great games on offer, with the below just some of this week’s highlights:
Athletic – Arsenal (Tuesday at 18:45 CEST)
Tottenham – Villarreal (Tuesday at 18:45 CEST)
Juventus – Borussia Dortmund (Tuesday at 21:00 CEST)
Ajax – Inter (Wednesday at 21:00 CEST)
Liverpool – Atlético Madrid (Wednesday at 21:00 CEST)
Bayern Munich – Chelsea (Wednesday at 21:00 CEST)
Newcastle – Barcelona (Thursday at 21:00 CEST)
Man City – Napoli (Thursday at 21:00 CEST)
We can’t wait for the CL 25/26 campaign to get underway. You’ll find CL match odds and outrights here!
Last Updated: 15.09.2025
