Antony has placed himself among the continent's best with his performances in Europe for Real Betis since leaving Manchester United a year ago. After being deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford by ex-head coach Ruben Amorim, the winger joined Betis on an initial loan - making an immediate impact to earn a permanent transfer in the summer. The Brazilian is continuing to impress in 2025-26.

Kylian Mbappe has accused his Real Madrid team-mates of lacking “desire”, with the Blancos looking anything but a “team of champions” when suffering a costly European defeat at Benfica. An “embarrassing” goal was conceded there, to the home side’s keeper, and the Liga giants will now have to navigate their way through the Champions League knockout play-offs.

So there we have it! After a mammoth 144 games that included plenty of goals and drama, the curtain has been drawn on the league phase of the 2025-26 Champions League. Arsenal finished top of the table with a perfect record, while Manchester City secured automatic qualification to the round of 16 by the skin of their teeth. But three historic European giants have been eliminated already, in the form of Napoli, Marseille and Ajax.

Kylian Mbappe has seen a Premier League move speculated on for some time, and fellow Frenchman Bacary Sagna has told GOAL why Arsenal could be the perfect landing spot if ties are ever severed with Real Madrid. Mbappe is living his professional dream in Spain for now, but a day might come in which he fancies packing his bags for the English top-flight.

The Champions League league phase drew to a predictably chaotic conclusion on Wednesday, with all of the matchday eight fixtures kicking-off at the same time. The net result was numerous positional changes over the course of 90-plus minutes of madness, though the highlight was undoubtedly Anatoliy Trubin scoring a last-second header to keep Benfica in the competition.