The first leg of the playoffs before the Champions League Round of 16 have been completed, and already, clubs like Juventus and Qarabag look to be out of it entirely after suffering blowout losses.
Meanwhile, other notable clubs like Atalanta and Inter Milan are very much on the ropes, while Spanish powerhouses Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid remain in tight contests after the first leg.
Clubs on bye weeks are sitting pretty right now, but even contenders like Liverpool and PSG will be on high alert amidst disappointing seasons in their respective league campaigns.
Following another week of thrilling Champions League action, let’s take a look at the latest power rankings, picking the top 10 teams in the competition thus far with the best chance of winning it all.
10. Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund sneak into the top 10 almost by default, and when the Round of 16 begins, barring a collapse in the second leg in Bergamo, they will be in it but in the bottom half of the table, so to speak.
There truly isn’t anything impressive about this Dortmund side, other than the center back duo of Nico Schlotterbeck and Waldemar Anton, with the latter almost criminally underrated by the masses who seem a little too fixated on the athletic gifts of his teammate.
Even with Niko Kovac shoring up this team in the mold of an underdog, the midfield remains a problem, and the team’s focus on attacking fullbacks doesn’t always lend itself to creativity beyond a few marauding runs from Daniel Svensson and the lovely crosses from Julian Ryerson.
They pretty much go as Serhou Guirassy goes in front of goal, and, as Atalanta found out, the good news for BVB is that Guirassy is slowly getting back on form. Dortmund have enough pop at home to surprise teams, and Kovac’s sides are always dangerous in tournaments – recall when his Eintracht Frankfurt upended Bayern Munich in 2018.
That being said, nobody should be taking Dortmund seriously as Champions League contenders this year. They are one of the better pretenders vying for a spot in the Round of 16, but there is simply not enough high-end talent in the midfield and attack.
9. Newcastle
Newcastle United are a much better team in the Champions League than in the Premier League, and that’s due to the fact that they play better football when there is an openness to the game and more opportunities for transition attacks.
Even though Qarabag are one of the weaker sides in the playoff, as Juventus can attest, there really is no such thing as a weak team at this stage of the competition. So the level of dominance Newcastle displayed in a 6-1 win that could have easily been 10-1 with the number of high-quality chances the Magpies created is very encouraging for what could be ahead in the Round of 16.
Newcastle are a legitimate sleeper team in the competition, and I like their chances as much as Chelsea’s at this point. Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon have been white-hot in the Champions League campaign, new signing Nick Woltemade has been as good as expected, and the defense and midfield have long been strengths of the Magpies.
Although Newcastle have more star power in the attack than Dortmund, they don’t have quite enough to compete with the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich to be contenders.
8. Chelsea
Chelsea made the bold decision to fire Enzo Maresca and replace him with Strasbourg’s Liam Rosenior, and judging by the uptick in form from star man Cole Palmer in the heart of the team, the move is starting to pay off.
The Blues just edge Newcastle out on the list because they have the true individual attacking firepower that the Magpies don’t, but, in truth, it’s a toss-up between the two Premier League clubs because Chelsea’s weakness is hugely concerning.
Their defense just isn’t very good, and it’s going to get exposed even more against the top teams on the bright Champions League nights. Their is a lack of togetherness and quality that not even Rosenior, who is far more willing to work with this group than Maresca was, can fix.
Chelsea have quietly recovered the potential of Wesley Fofana that was lost to injury, but aside from him, the club don’t have a top center back who is healthy with fellow Frenchman Benoit Badiashile currently out.
7. PSG
PSG were the reigning champions last season, but since no team has repeated as Champions League winners since the Real Madrid three-peat side in 2018, that honestly doesn’t count for much.
This sport is all about what you are doing now, and, right now, PSG are not even the best team in their own league, currently locked in another neck-and-neck battle for Ligue 1 with upstarts Lens.
There are signs of the PSG of last season in 2025/26 whenever Ousmane Dembele is cooking and the midfield is playing at its best, but that just hasn’t been the case nearly enough this season.
The defense has regressed, and, really, every star player besides Vitinha and Nuno Mendes has looked worse in the 2025/26 season. Not a single PSG player has scored 10 goals – not even Dembele – and his winger partner, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, has been almost a ghost despite playing in the worst of the top five leagues in Europe.
Still, you can’t count last year’s winners out, and it almost seems like PSG are a sleeping giant just waiting for a sense of urgency in the Champions League knockouts to awaken them from their slumber.
6. Liverpool
Liverpool are a struggling giant no longer, and now the pieces of the ambitious summer transfer window are beginning to click. Although the Premier League is not technically out of reach for the Reds, the Champions League has to be the priority for Arne Slot, and, indeed, Liverpool spent as much as they did in the summer with the intention of winning the Champions League again.
Everything people tried to criticize Florian Wirtz for has been proven unequivocally wrong, and he and fellow former Bundesliga superstar Dominik Szoboszlai are two of the most impressive playmaking midfielders in the world in very different ways. And Hugo Ekitike has been an even more impressive signing from the Bundesliga this summer by the Reds.
The real X-Factor for Liverpool, though, is Mohamed Salah. He has definitely lost a step in terms of his dribbling output and one-on-one ability, and there’s really no sense in denying that.
However, it’s obvious an explosive right winger is no longer going to be explosive at 33 years of age. But Liverpool are noticeably better with Salah in the starting lineup, and that’s not a coincidence.
What Salah has lost in speed, he has gained in wisdom. His creativity is better than it has ever been with easily more than two key passes per game again this season, and the experience he has in this competition in an otherwise young, brand-new Liverpool attack actually does count for a lot.
Ultimately, how far Liverpool go in the Champions League will depend on the strength of their defense, because the volatile Ibrahima Konate needs to have a strong campaign, even if only to prove to potential future employers Real Madrid and Bayern Munich that he is still a big-game player.
5. Real Madrid
Speaking of Real Madrid, it’s honestly hilarious how easily pundits in the United States and United Kingdom brush them off year after year as contenders, and it’s telling about the quality of football analysis in these countries that in literally every other footballing nation, Los Blancos are always spoken about in hushed tones as contenders.
Every team has its rough patches, and, truth be told, there was a lot of coddling and fawning over Xabi Alonso, who, one amazing season with Bayer Leverkusen aside, really hasn’t proven he is a consistent winner at the elite level as a manager and simply could not handle the pressure at Real Madrid.
He tried to change the identity of the club overnight tactically in a way that made no sense, cast aside Luka Modric against the wishes of the entire organization (look at how that turned out), and he pretty much made every key player on the team perform at a lower level.
Alvaro Arbeloa brings more humility and a focus on the needs of the players, rather than his own wants or stroking his own genius. As with Thomas Frank at Tottenham, the media was too slow to criticize a personable manager they liked, rather than objectively looking at how Real Madrid were playing – and how they were getting worse the longer the manager’s ideas were taking shape.
If there are any doubts about Real Madrid’s togetherness, the way the team rallied around Vinicius Junior after he was racially abused by Benfica’s Coward in Chief Gianluca Prestianni was a sight to behold, and as horrible as that incident was (and as horrible as UEFA continues to be at handling racism), that could serve as a rallying point for Real Madrid.
And that’s all they need. Any time Real Madrid have been doubted as a top side in a season but were able to have a moment of adversity that brought the team together, they show a fire that is undeniable.
It happened in the miracle 2021/22 run after they were embarrassed 4-0 by Barcelona in El Clasico, and perhaps the revenge win over Benfica, fueled by Vinicius himself, could be that moment for them in 2025/26.
4. Barcelona
Yet, even as Barcelona sit behind Real Madrid in La Liga and have a terrible defensive record that Girona exploited in an upset rivalry victory, the Blaugrana were inches away from a Champions League Final appearance last season.
Whereas Arbeloa is still proving himself as a manager and does not even have a permanent role at Real Madrid at this point, Barcelona have handed the keys to the kingdom to Hansi Flick, who has been there and done that in this competition.
Like the greatest managers in the history of this sport, Flick’s genius truly springs to life in the big games of the Champions League, and his high line is paradoxically a lot less suicidal and a lot more of an asset in these bigger games.
The biggest reason, though, for choosing Barcelona just ahead of their eternal rivals is the fact that the Blaugrana have still owned them in the important matches, recently blowing them out of the Spanish Supercup Final in the game that ultimately cost Xabi Alonso his job.
Another reason to believe in Barcelona is that they do often experiment with players in La Liga with an eye to the future moreso than other top clubs, specifically Real Madrid, so better starters like Robert Lewandowski will be making more of an impact in the Champions League.
3. Manchester City
Manchester City had a rough 2024/25 season, but part of what makes this organization so dangerous year over year is their ability to quickly identify weaknesses and retool.
More praise needs to be given to Pep Guardiola and this team for how wisely they spend their millions upon millions when recruiting. Rayan Cherki was one of the bargains of the summer window, and winter addition Antoine Semenyo has already been a major asset and nailed-on starter in this attack.
There are few weaknesses in the starting lineup, and, if anything, Man City are only getting better as the season progresses, narrowing the gap on Arsenal in the Premier League as young players improve and new pieces gel.
When you have a striker as prolific as Erling Haaland, that is a great equalizer in these big Champions League games, because all he needs is that half-yard of space to score goals, and with his frame and instincts, he can practically sniff out the chances himself.
Man City have more quality than they did last season in midfield, they have one of the best defenses in European football, and their attack is multi-layered and far more skilled than it was before.
2. Arsenal
This is the most complete team Arsenal have fielded in the Champions League in decades, and even though rival fanbases in the Premier League haven’t paid him much respect, new striker Viktor Gyokeres is a major reason why the Gunners are closer than ever to the Champions League crown.
With four goals in six appearances, Gyokeres’s Champions League record is excellent, and with Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz also available, Arsenal are deep and multi-faceted at the center forward position.
They have sufficient attacking quality, though in order to take that next step into the elite territory, they do need Martin Odegaard to improve, Bukayo Saka to show more of a killer edge, and Gabriel Martinelli to show more consistency. But the thing is, when these guys falter, Arsenal have options off the bench with different skill-sets to provide those kinds of traits they are missing: Leandro Trossard, Noni Madueke, and Eberechi Eze are no slouches.
The real strength of Arsenal lies in the defense and midfield, and there is no question that Arsenal have the strongest spine in European football, even displacing last season’s finalists Inter Milan and PSG in this regard.
Adding Martin Zubimendi to Declan Rice has given Arsenal an almost unfair advantage in the middle of the park, while the center back duo of Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba is so clearly the best in world football that attempting to argue otherwise would lead to utter lunacy.
1. Bayern Munich
It’s incredibly difficult to choose between the top two contenders, and while Arsenal have a much stronger midfield and defense than Bayern Munich, it is so hard to ignore both Die Roten’s pedigree in this competition and the sheer quality of their attacking trident.
Although the saying is that defense wins championships, oftentimes a transcendent attacking trio is the hallmark of the teams that are able to close the deal in the Champions League.
Real Madrid had Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale. Barcelona had Neymar, Luis Suarez, and Lionel Messi. Most recently, Liverpool boasted Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah in their years of consistently challenging for – and once winning – the most prestigious prize in club football.
Luis Diaz, Harry Kane, and Michael Olise is easily the best attacking trio in world football and the first truly elite trio operating on the same page since the Reds’ crew in the 2018/19 title run.
Kane’s plaudits as the best all-around striker in world football need no introduction, but Olise has been so good this season in his second campaign in Bavaria that he’s actually slightly outplayed his teammate in the No. 9 role when accounting for all that he does out wide. Meanwhile, Diaz has been the new addition to put them over the top, destabilizing defenses with his dribbling ability while also providing plenty of goals and assists.
In addition to the attacking trio, a healthy Jamal Musiala, the young Lennart Karl, and the rejuvenated veteran X-Factor Serge Gnabry add an excellent group of playmakers to support this voracious front line, making Bayern the most dangerous attacking team in European football.
And even though they have had depth issues defensively, with Alphonso Davies healthy, a back line of Davies, Dayot Upamecano, Jonathan Tah, and the underappreciated Konrad Laimer (who has become a fixture at right back now) is a strong one, especially when coached by Vincent Kompany. Behind them, veteran Champions League goalkeeper Manuel Neuer transforms back into GOAT status on these European nights.
Again, choosing between Bayern and Arsenal in first is almost an unfair toss-up, but because Bayern are always in the mix year after year and have so much offensive quality, they just get the edge.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.