With five rounds now completed, and just three remaining, things are finally starting to get interesting in the Champions League league phase. After this week's games, we now have a slightly clearer picture of who needs what to progress to the knockout stage. Arsenal, for example, are the only team already assured of a play-off place after winning their battle with Bayern Munich for the title of the best team in Europe right now. The Gunners are also the only team left with a 100 percent record after Inter suffered a heart-breaking loss away to Atletico Madrid.
Elsewhere, Liverpool are now officially in crisis after being humiliated at home by PSV, while Barcelona also have problems – as so clearly illustrated in their 3-0 loss to Chelsea. We're also now wondering if Manchester City might end up paying a heavy price for disrespecting Bayer Leverkusen by fielding a weakened team at the Etihad on Tuesday.
There are obviously still a lot of games yet to play but, as it stands, which sides are looking like potential champions? And who is running the risk of suffering an embarrassingly early exit? GOAL ranks and rates all 36 participants in the 2025-26 Champions League below…
AFP36Ajax ↔️
Anyone with any appreciation of the history of the Champions League – or even just European football in general – will have found it tough watching Ajax toil in this season's competition. We're talking about one of the game's great institutions. And yet they've looked completely out of their depth, as underlined by their miserable record of zero points from five games.
Ajax did at least play a bit better against fellow strugglers Benfica on Tuesday, but they still ended up on the wrong side of a 2-0 scoreline, and while they're not mathematically eliminated, there's no way back for the four-time European champions now, as there’s next to no chance that even three successive wins would be enough to nick a place in the top 24.
AdvertisementAFP35Kairat Almaty ⬇️
Chelsea-bound teenager Dastan Satpaev was on target as Kairat scored twice in the final 10 minutes of Wednesday's clash with Copenhagen, but it was a case of too little, too late for the Kazakhs, who came out on the wrong side of a 3-2 scoreline.
With a top-24 finish now almost certainly beyond Rafael Urazbakhtin's men, the target now will be picking up a first-ever win in the Champions League proper, against either Olympiacos or Club Brugge at the Central Stadium.
AFP34Bodo/Glimt ⬇️
It's hard not to feel a large degree of sympathy for Bodo/Glimt. There are teams that have played a lot worse than Kjetil Knutsen's exciting side over the five matchdays to date and yet are better placed to finish in the top 24.
Unfortunately, the Norwegian newcomers' understandable naivety is costing them dearly. As Knutsen admitted on Tuesday, his team took far too many risks in the second half of their crunch clash with Juventus, meaning they lost a game that their first-half performance proved that they really could have won.
Sadly, there now appears to be no way back for Bodo/Glimt, who have just two points to their name and still have to play Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid.
AFP33Slavia Prague ⬇️
There were plenty of positives for Slavia Prague coach Jindrich Trpisovsky to take out of Tuesday's scoreless draw with Athletic Club. The Czechs never stopped fighting, while Jindrich Stanek had an outstanding game in goal, making one sensational save after another. Trpisovsky acknowledged, though, that Slavia's failure to win has effectively ended their hopes of making the knockout stage, as their next two games are away to Spurs and at home to Barcelona.
Still, a final-round meeting with Pafos looks like a real opportunity to conclude a spirited campaign with the much-coveted win that's eluded them thus far because of the "enormous quality" they've come up against in Europe's elite cup competition.
