Champions League 2025-26 Power Rankings: Manchester City and Liverpool on the rise again but Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter are all moving in the wrong direction

Despite the best efforts of Player-of-the-Match-winning goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov, Kairat were beaten 1-0 by Olympiacos on Tuesday, thus effectively ending what little chance the Kazakhstani side had left of making the play-offs.

They're not mathematically out of the running just yet, but they're six points off 24th place and their goal difference is -11. All that Kairat’s players can do now is to try to pick up their first win when they host Club Brugge on matchday seven - and then do their best to enjoy the exercise in damage limitation that will be their trip to the Emirates on January 28.

It's just so hard to make sense of Villarreal. Marcelino's men are currently third in La Liga, having lost just two of their 15 games so far this season - and yet they've managed to pick up just one point in six Champions League outings. Villarreal twice came from behind in Wednesday's 3-2 defeat at home to Copenhagen, but their desperate need for a victory meant they took more risks than they normally would have in the closing stages and ended up conceding a 90th-minute winner to Andreas Cornelius.

The Yellow Submarine could yet make it to seven points, but that won't be anywhere near enough for a play-off place, and it looks beyond them anyway, especially as they must travel to Leverkusen on matchday eight.

Jindrich Trpisovsky couldn't fault his players for effort in Tuesday's 3-0 loss at Tottenham, and felt that the final scoreline was not a fair reflection of the game.

"We had some good chances and then we conceded two goals from penalties and an own goal," he pointed out. "But the speed of the game was incredible, so it's a good experience for our team – as it's different when you see it on TV!"

Trpisovsky's troops are set for another eye-opener when they face Barcelona on matchday seven, but they could at least pick up their first win in the Champions League proper since 2007 when they play Pafos away in their final fixture, on January 28.

With just over 10 minutes to play in Baku, Ajax, the four-time champions of Europe, were 2-1 down to Qarabag and facing the most humiliating Champions League exit possible. However, two goals from Oscar Gloukh, either side of a sweet strike from Anton Gaaei, saw the Dutch outfit end a bitterly embarrassing run of five consecutive defeats in the league phase.

Of course, Ajax's first win has likely come far too late to salvage their play-off hopes but, with games to come against fellow strugglers Villarreal and Olympiacos, the Eredivisie strugglers could at least finish what has been a trying campaign on a high.

It's such a shame that Bodo/Glimt passed up so many opportunities to pick up more points during their first five games because, as they proved in Wednesday's 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund, they're one of the best teams to watch in this season's Champions League. The Norwegians didn't see a whole lot of the ball at Signal Iduna Park and certainly rode their luck at times, but they carried a constant attacking threat and showed remarkable resilience to take home a point.

With games to come against Manchester City (home) and Atletico Madrid (away), Bodo/Glimt have no real chance of making the play-offs, but how great a story would it be if they finally got the win their play has so richly deserved when they host Pep Guardiola & Co. on January 20?!

Ansgar Knauff rightly argued that there were "a lot of positives" that Eintracht Frankfurt could take away from Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at Barcelona. For starters, his goal was their first in the Champions League since their 5-1 loss at home to Liverpool on matchday three. Secondly, they played with far greater organisation and spirit than they had in last weekend's 6-0 loss to Bundesliga rivals RB Leipzig.

Frankfurt are still facing an uphill struggle to make the play-offs, though. With just four points on their board, they simply have to beat both Qarabag (away) and Tottenham (home) to stand a chance. On current form, that's a tall order.

Club Brugge coach Ivan Leko was right when he said that his team had some "good moments" at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Wednesday. It's just that Arsenal's were better, with Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli scoring a couple of worldies in a 3-0 win for the Premier League leaders.

It was, as Leko said, a good learning experience for Brugge, who still have a slim chance of making the play-offs. Looking at the standings, it's unlikely 10 points will be enough to progress, but all the Belgians can do is try to hit that number by beating Kairat and Marseille, which they're certainly capable of, as we saw during their 4-1 rout of Monaco and the epic 3-3 draw with Barcelona.

USG midfielder Kevin Mac Allister admitted that he was going to struggle to sleep after Tuesday's 3-2 loss at home to Marseille. "We did well, especially in the first half, but small mistakes ended up costing us," the Argentine said. "It's a very bitter feeling. In the end, we created so many chances. We deserved at least a point."

Failing to get one, though, has left USG needing a minor miracle to make the play-offs. David Hubert's men do have six points, but their next game is against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, while high-flying Atalanta will likely arrive in Brussels on matchday eight targeting automatic qualification for the last 16.

Athletic Club aren't done yet. A bitterly frustrating 0-0 draw in the Basques' must-win meeting with Slavia in Prague appeared to put paid to their hopes of scraping into the play-offs, but a surprise point at home to PSG has kept their faint hopes alive.

Unai Simon winning Player of the Match tells you everything you need to know about the nature of the performance at San Mames, but Athletic will certainly need the Spain goalkeeper at his very best again when they battle Atalanta on matchday seven. However, nothing less than a win in Bergamo will suffice for Ernesto Valverde's toothless team, who have now gone three games without a goal in the Champions League.

Pafos really could have pulled off a massive upset in Turin on Wednesday. With Juventus performing poorly, the Cypriots had the better of the first half and, as coach Juan Carlos Carcedo pointed out, they created some decent opportunities to take the lead. However, Pafos' chance passed them by, as Juventus took control of the contest after the break and claimed an ultimately straightforward 2-0 win.

"Now, we face two tough games, in London against Chelsea and at home against Slavia Prague," Carcedo said. "We will do everything to get the most out of them." Unfortunately for one of the surprise packages in this season's Champions League, two wins might not even be enough for them to extend their remarkable European adventure into the knockout stage.

Joe Luis Mendilibar admitted that he was gripped by the fear that his Olympiacos side would be punished for their profligacy in Tuesday's clash with Kairat Almaty. Truth be told, though, the Kazakhs never really looked like scoring before or after Gelson Martins' 73rd-minute strike at the Astana Arena, allowing their Greek visitors to see out the game quite comfortably.

Thanks to their first win of the league phase, Olympiacos are now back in with a chance of making the knockout stage, although they'll definitely need to beat both Leverkusen at home and Ajax away if they're to sneak into the top 24.

When the full-time whistle blew in Baku on Wednesday, Qarabag's players were still trying to figure out what had just happened. They had led Ajax 2-1 with 11 minutes to go yet somehow came out on the wrong side of a 4-2 scoreline.

All is not lost for Gurban Gurbanov's over-achievers, though, as they're definitely capable of beating a very inconsistent Eintracht Frankfurt at home on matchday seven. The problem, though, is that 10 points wasn't enough to make last season's play-offs, meaning Qarabag could well require at least a draw from their final-round trip to Anfield, which is a big ask even accounting for Liverpool's patchy performances this season.

All credit to Copenhagen, they've dragged themselves right back into play-off contention with back-to-back 3-2 wins, and if the home triumph over Kairat wasn't exactly noteworthy, Wednesday's victory away to Villarreal was a wonderful result. The Danes were pegged back twice at El Madrigal but never lost faith and nicked a famous win with Andreas Cornelius' first Champions League goal for nine years.

Unfortunately for Copenhagen, it's still going to take something special for them to finish inside the top 24, as their two remaining games are against Napoli, at Parken, and Barcelona, at Camp Nou.

PSV have enjoyed two remarkable wins in this season's Champions League, against Napoli (6-2) and Liverpool (4-1). However, there's a very real chance that the Dutch titleholders won't even make it into the play-offs after Tuesday's 3-2 loss at home to Atletico Madrid. Early on in Eindhoven, it looked like PSV might pull off another upset win, with Guus Til breaking the deadlock after just 10 minutes of play. However, Peter Bosz was left lamenting his side's inability to maintain their strong start and, ultimately, had no complaints about the result.

PSV are now in a very precarious position, because while they have eight points to their name, their two remaining fixtures are against Newcastle and Bayern Munich. Fail to get anything out of their trip to the always-intimidating St. James' Park and they'll probably be praying that Bayern have already qualified by the time they arrive at the Philips Stadion at the end of January.

Not even the availability of Victor Osimhen could save Galatasaray from another desperately disappointing Champions League defeat on Tuesday. After missing last month's shock loss at home to USG, the Nigeria striker drew a blank in a European game for the first time since last year as the Turkish champions were beaten 1-0 by Monaco at the Stade Louis II.

As a result, Gala have gone from fighting for automatic qualification to needing a win against either Atletico Madrid (home) or Manchester City (away) just to guarantee themselves a play-off place, which is far from ideal.

Monaco's vital victory over Galatasaray on Tuesday was the product of perseverance. Sebastien Pocognoli's side missed a penalty and a couple of gilt-edged opportunities before one of their most profligate players, Folarin Balogun, finally found the back of the net with just over 20 minutes remaining. It was just reward for a much-improved second-half showing from the Ligue 1 outfit and moved Monaco up to nine points from six games. 

There is still work to do, though, and it's not going to be easy, as Monaco must next travel to the Bernabeu before concluding their campaign with a home game against Juventus. "The opponents are very strong," player of the match Takumi Minamino admitted to UEFA. "But I think that we are moving in the right direction again."

After four consecutive defeats, Benfica looked dead and buried at the midway point of the league phase, but they've given themselves a lifeline with consecutive 2-0 wins, away to Ajax and at home to Napoli. The latter victory was particularly impressive, with Jose Mourinho schooling Antonio Conte at the Estadio da Luz on Wednesday as the Eagles claimed a fully deserved three points despite having less than 40 per cent possession.

Unfortunately, Benfica still have it all to do to reach the knockout stage, as they must now travel to Turin to take on Juve before welcoming Real Madrid to Lisbon. Of course, that just means that 'The Special One' has got a golden opportunity here to show the world that he really has rediscovered his Midas touch in continental competition...

Antonio Conte blamed injuries and fatigue for Napoli's lame loss in Lisbon on Wednesday - excuses that were given very short shrift by his Benfica counterpart Jose Mourinho. In fairness to Conte, they were missing a number of key players at the Estadio da Luz, but the fact that the Partenopei have lost all three of their away games reflects horribly on the coach, who has an infamously poor record in the Champions League.

The belief is that Conte's high-octane football simply cannot be reproduced every three-to-four days, so it would take a brave man to back Napoli to get the victory they so sorely need in Copenhagen on matchday seven before they finish their league-phase campaign at home to Chelsea the following week - particularly as they face Serie A rivals Juve in between those two games.

Technically speaking, Sporting were less than half an hour away from a massive win at Bayern Munich. But, in reality, it would have been criminal if the Portuguese champions had even picked up a point at the Allianz Arena. Rui Borges' men didn't manage a single shot on target all evening, with their only goal coming via Joshua Kimmich, who deflected a cross into his own net.

Sporting are undeniably a different proposition in front of their own fans in Lisbon but, based on what we saw from them in Munich, it would be a surprise if they picked up the win they needed against PSG on matchday seven to keep their slim hopes of automatic qualification alive.

Marseille always seem to do things the hard way. After conceding early away to USG on Tuesday, they quickly drew level through Igor Paixao before Mason Greenwood's double put them in complete control of the game. However, the French side were ultimately lucky to escape with all three points, after Anan Khalaili's second goal of the evening with 19 minutes remaining.

As Roberto De Zerbi pointed out, though, OM don't have as much European experience as many of their Champions League rivals and, after a topsy-turvy campaign thus far, they've done well to put themselves in a position whereby a win over Liverpool next month would seal a play-off place in the best possible fashion in front of their fans at the always-raucous Velodrome.

Juventus coach Luciano Spalletti described some of his team's efforts in Wednesday's 2-0 win over Pafos as "embarrassing", and the Bianconeri really were shockingly bad during the first half of the game in Turin. However, they did improve the longer the game wore on, and goals from Weston McKennie and Jonathan David allowed them to pick up the three points they so desperately needed to keep their play-off hopes alive.

The hope now is that Juve will have made more progress under Spalletti - who only took over at the end of October - by the time they host Jose Mourinho's resurgent Benfica on January 21 in what is effectively a must-win match for both sides.

We said all along that the second half of Inter's league-phase campaign would tell us so much more about their prospects of winning the tournament due to the incredibly soft nature of their first four fixtures - and they've now lost back-to-back games, against Atletico Madrid and Liverpool.

In the Nerazzurri's defence, they were unlucky to concede late goals on both occasions. However, as Serie A followers will tell you, Christian Chivu's record against strong sides this season is worryingly poor. Consequently, we're not remotely confident that Inter will claim the top-eight place that was there for the taking after matchday four, as their final two matches are against Arsenal (home) and Borussia Dortmund (away).

Leverkusen captain Robert Andrich summed up his side's feelings perfectly after Wednesday's 2-2 draw with Newcastle. "It's a mix of relief at getting the late equaliser," the skipper said, "and frustration at giving away our earlier lead."

What hope the Germans had of finishing in the top eight now appear to be over, but the opportunity is still there for Leverkusen to finish quite high up the standings. Obviously, playing Olympiacos in Piraeus is never straightforward, but it is a 'winnable' game for a team that has improved enormously since Kasper Hjulmand replaced the hapless Erik ten Hag as coach, while Leverkusen's matchday-eight opponents Villarreal are likely to have absolutely nothing to play for when they arrive at the BayArena on January 28.

Newcastle have developed a nasty habit of conceding late goals in this season's Premier League, and some supporters believe that manager Eddie Howe is to blame for adopting overly conservative tactics after his team has gone ahead. Whatever the truth, Alex Grimaldo's 88th-minute equaliser for Leverkusen in Wednesday's 2-2 draw at the BayArena has seriously complicated the Magpies' hopes of a top-eight finish in the Champions League, because after the highly unpredictable PSV visit St. James' Park on January 21, Howe's team must travel to the Parc des Princes to tackle the mighty PSG.

The manager insists that his team remain in a "good position" but, looking at it objectively, Newcastle look bound for the play-offs.

Borussia Dortmund further enhanced their reputation as the great entertainers in this season's Champions League by playing out an exciting 2-2 draw with Bodo/Glimt on Wednesday that means BVB's six games have yielded a ridiculous 32 goals. Of course, that was of little consolation to coach Niko Kovac, who was "disappointed and annoyed" that his team had thrown away two precious points. "We weren't very clever when it came to the goals we conceded," he said.

The draw has also seriously dented Dortmund's hopes of qualifying directly for the last 16, as they'll now need to defeat both Tottenham (away) and Inter (home) to go straight through.

Things are looking up for Thomas Frank. The Dane came under an awful lot of pressure after Tottenham's dreadful derby defeat at Arsenal last month. but both performances and results have improved since then. A team previously maligned for a lack of creativity and cutting edge certainly looked good going forward in Tuesday's 3-0 win over Slavia Prague, which featured exciting and encouraging displays from Mohamed Kudus and Xavi Simons. 

Of course, the standard of the opposition must be taken into account, and if Spurs are going to finish in the top eight, they're going to have to show us what they're really made of in their matchday-seven meeting with Borussia Dortmund in north London. 

Will Xabi Alonso still be in charge of Real Madrid when they play their next Champions League game, against Monaco, on January 20? It's really hard to say right now, as the pressure on the former Leverkusen boss has only intensified after Wednesday's 2-1 loss at home to Manchester City. The reports coming out of Spain suggest that Alonso is 'safe' for now, but he needs to spark an immediate upturn in form, starting with Sunday's league clash with Alaves.

If he does manage to get through the next month, the good news is that Madrid, in spite of their second loss of their Champions League campaign, are still in a position to go straight into the last 16. Monaco, though, will be no pushovers at the Bernabeu, while one can be sure that Benfica boss Jose Mourinho will relish the opportunity to get one over on his old club on matchday eight.

We said after the 3-0 drubbing of Barcelona that Chelsea still had to prove that they could produce performances of such quality on a consistent basis - and the wait goes on. After putting themselves in a position to challenge for the Premier League title, the Blues have turned in one underwhelming domestic display after another this month, meaning Tuesday's 2-1 loss to Atalanta didn't actually come as that much of a surprise. It was entirely in keeping with the schizophrenic nature of Enzo Maresca's side.

The Italian has been accused of too much rotation from game to game, but it's something of a necessity for a team that barely had a pre-season due to the Club World Cup, and it's not his fault either that so many of members of Chelsea's expensively-assembled squad are average at best. Consequently, the Blues' fluctuating form is only likely to continue for the remainder of the season, meaning they could just as easily storm into the last 16 by winning their final two games, against Pafos and Napoli, or bow out after losing both!

Atalanta are understandably still finding their feet under new coach Raffaele Palladino, which helps explain how a team that slumped to a dismal 3-1 defeat at Verona on Saturday managed to come from behind to beat Chelsea in Bergamo on Tuesday. "We regained the DNA we'd lost," Palladino enthused after a Charles De Ketelaere-inspired second-half fightback at the New Balance Arena. "I saw the team I wanted to see in Verona."

The shock 2-1 victory means that Atalanta are now in an incredible position to go straight through to the last 16. Indeed, one win from their final two games, against either Athletic Club (home) or USG (away), might actually be sufficient, while four points would definitely seal the deal - and that looks well within the grasp of a team that has now won three Champions League games on the spin.

Atletico Madrid may have lost ground in the Spanish title race after back-to-back defeats, but they're right in the mix for a top-eight finish in the Champions League thanks to three wins on the spin. Tuesday's victory over PSV may not have been as noteworthy as beating Inter at the Metropolitano last month, but Diego Simeone was rightly thrilled by his team's performance in Eindhoven, where they triumphed 3-2 after recovering wonderfully well from the concession of an early goal. "At no time did my team not follow the plan we had, and at no time did the pressure we put on PSV drop," the Argentine said. 

Atletico still have to go to Istanbul on matchday seven to face Galatasaray, but even a point at RAMS Park would put them in a position to qualify directly for the last 16 by beating Bodo/Glimt in Madrid the following week.

Liverpool's clash with Inter at San Siro was a desperately low-quality encounter, and the penalty that decided the game in the visitors' favour was the definition of 'soft'. None of that mattered to Arne Slot, though. With the Reds in rotten form, and star man Mohamed Salah sitting at home after a staggering show of insubordination, Slot needed a morale-boosting win in Milan - and that's exactly what he got thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai's 88th-minute spot-kick coupled with a much-improved defensive display. 

The Dutch coach still has plenty of problems to solve aside from Salah but, for all their troubles, Liverpool are back in contention to finish in the top eight after adding Inter to a list of scalps that also includes both Madrid clubs, and there's also every chance that the Merseysiders will be in a much better place by the time the knockout stage begins.

The jury is still very much on Hansi Flick's Barcelona, who were in real danger of blowing their shot at a top-eight finish after falling behind at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday. However, the introduction of Marcus Rashford lifted the Catalans, with the Englishman laying on the first of two goals for unlikely match-winner Jules Kounde. With games to come against Slavia Prague and Copenhagen, the Blaugrana are almost certain to reach 16 points - which should be good enough to secure direct qualification for the last 16. 

However, Eintracht's breakaway goal at Camp Nou only hammered home the point previously made after the games against PSG, Club Brugge and Chelsea, that Hansi Flick's high line makes Barca very vulnerable to quick counter-attacks. Consequently, we remain unconvinced that this wonderfully entertaining team can go all the way, primarily because they've yet to keep a clean sheet in this season's competition!

Manchester City certainly couldn't have picked a better time to travel to the Bernabeu, with Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso under immense pressure going into Wednesday's clash in the Spanish capital. However, the 2023 treble winners deserve immense praise for weathering an early storm to record a come-from-behind win that gets their Champions League campaign right back on track after Pep Guardiola gifted Bayer Leverkusen a win at the Etihad last time out.

All City need to do now is beat Bodo/Glimt and Galatasaray to progress directly to the last 16, and you can be sure that they would have taken that when the tournament began back in September.

A point in Bilbao guaranteed PSG at least a place in the play-offs, but that was of little consolation to winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia after he and his team-mates failed to score in a frustrating 0-0 draw with Athletic Club. "We are Paris, we are the champions, and in every game we want to win," the Georgian said. "When we draw, even if it is away from home, it is a bad game."

Kvaratskhelia was being a little harsh on PSG, who restricted their Basque hosts to just one shot on target and created six big chances, but there is a feeling that Luis Enrique's men have yet to really click this season. It will, thus, be fascinating to see how they fare in their final two games, away to Sporting and at home to Newcastle, as they look to finish among the top eight.

We're approaching the middle of December and Bayern have still only lost one match in all competitions - which illustrates precisely why Vincent Kompany's men are many people's pick to win this season's Champions League. Of course, at one point on Tuesday, it looked like they might suffer a shock second defeat, with Sporting CP 1-0 up in Munich, but the Bavarians came storming back to win, and the fact that Harry Kane didn't score was arguably a positive, given it has been claimed that the German titleholders are overly reliant on the Englishman for goals.

With USG up next at the Allianz Arena, Bayern are perfectly placed to seal a top-eight finish before they travel to Eindhoven to take on PSV.

Arsenal may be experiencing something akin to a wobble in the Premier League, but they remain utterly unflappable in Europe. The Gunners maintained their 100% record in this season's Champions League with a 3-0 win over a Club Brugge side that held Barcelona to a draw just last month - and it was achieved without a number of first-team players, which only served to underline the strength of Mikel Arteta's squad.

Arsenal will be acutely aware that Liverpool tore it up in last season's league phase only to come a cropper in the knockout stage after receiving a seriously unfortunate draw for the top-seeded team. However, there's just no getting away from the fact that the Londoners could not be better placed right now to win a first European Cup - and it's telling that even Arsenal's players are openly discussing a Champions League-Premier League double.