The 2025-2026 UCL season is upon us once again. With mixed bag review from the format instilled last year, UEFA has kept that format at least for one more season. With all the pros and cons the bottom line is that with more teams and more overall matches it can generate more fan interest. Maybe. But what it does unquestionably generate is more revenue. Personally I am not a big fan of this format. It is much harder to look at the schedule and dissect how your team should fare. Historically, the draw was always important. But once the 4 team groups were established it was easy to track how your team was doing. And it was a balanced schedule. Each team in a group played the other teams both home and away.
But the new 36 team format did away with groups. The draw became even more of a crapshoot. While each team plays 8 matches, with 4 at home and 4 on the road teams could luck out and have their tougher matches at home and the easier ones on the road. Or vice-versa. So the crapshoot of the draw just increased in crapshootingness (is that a word…lol). And it makes roster management so much tougher. Lets take an team in the EPL as an example. From mid August through May they play 38 EPL matches, a handful of FA Cup matches, a handful of Carabao Cup matches plus their UCL matches. Not even counting any national team matches players get called to during the official FIFA windows in September, October, November, and March. That’s a lot of playing time managers need to deal with to keep their players fresh. Its always been a major task for club managers but its even tougher now. In the past, a manager could track the standings in their group and have a reasonable idea of where they stood and how many points they needed to end up with to advance. That’s not so easy now since there are no groups. So its much tougher to predict what you need at the end.
As a reminder, under this format the 8 teams with the highest point totals earn byes directly to the Round of 16. The 12 teams with the lowest point totals go home. The middle 16 teams are seeded and play an away and home set of matches with the return leg being at the home of the higher seed. The 8 winners from those matches then combine with the 8 bye teams to form the Round of 16. The Round of 16, Quarter-finals, and Semi-finals are all home and away series. The final slated for May 30. 2026 in Budapest is a winner take all match.
So there’s the backdrop lets look at this seasons league.
Domestic League and Clubs
England: Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Newcastle
Spain: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Athletic Club, Villarreal
Italy: Napoli, Inter, Atalanta, Juventus
Germany: Bayern München, Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, Dortmund
France: Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille, Monaco
Netherlands: PSV, Ajax
Portugal: Benfica, Sporting CP
Belgium: Club Brugge, Union Saint-Gilloise
Türkiye: Galatasaray
Czechia: Slavia Praha
Greece: Olympiacos
Denmark: Copenhagen
Norway: Bodø/Glimt
Cyprus: Pafos
Kazakhstan: Kairat Almaty
Azerbaijan: Qarabağ
The EPL, the biggest league in the world, has the most teams this year with 6 while the 8 smallest leagues have one team each.
League Schedule
Matchday 1: 16–18 September 2025
Matchday 2: 30 September–1 October 2025
Matchday 3: 21/22 October 2025
Matchday 4: 4/5 November 2025
Matchday 5: 25/26 November 2025
Matchday 6: 9/10 December 2025
Matchday 7: 20/21 January 2026
Matchday 8: 28 January 2026
Knockout Stage Schedule
Knockout phase play-offs: 17/18 & 24/25 February 2026
Round of 16: 10/11 & 17/18 March 2026
Quarter-finals: 7/8 & 14/15 April 2026
Semi-finals: 28/29 April & 5/6 May 2026
Final: 30 May 2026 (Budapest)
Clearly, the objective going in is to get in the top 8 to avoid playing 2 extra matches. Come next March those extra days off will be critical. That is crunch time for domestic leagues, domestic cup competitions, and the last FIFA window prior to WC 2026. The players will be on tired legs and every match they don’t have to play is huge.
Here’s how I see the overall league play. The number in parenthesis is the team’s current standing in their respective domestic league.
Top 8
Liverpool (1), Manchester City, (8), Arsenal (2), Chelsea (5), Paris Saint-Germain (1), Barcelona (5), Real Madrid (1), and Bayern Munich (1)
Knockout Playoff
Tottenham (3), Napoli (1), Juventus (2), Atalanta (6), Inter (13), Atletico Madrid (3), Athletic Club (3), Villareal (4) ,Bayer Leverkusen (9), Eintrecht Frankfurt (5), Borussia Dortmund (2), Marseille (6), Monaco (4), PSV (2), Benfica (4), and Sporting CP (2).
Eliminated
Newcastle (10), Union Saint -Gilloise (1), Club Brugge (5), Ajax (3), Galatsaray (1), Slavia Praha (1), Olympiacos (1), Copenhagen (2), Bodo Glimst (1), Pafos (10), Kairat Almaty (1), and Qarabağ (7).
If you are interested in some real deep analysis of this, and especially for you gamblers, I suggest you take a look at Opta Analyst’s evaluation. Its really good!
And all the fun begins this Tuesday. Who wins it all? Its a long long season but push comes to shove I would go with Liverpool.
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Soccer Analyst
Steve is an avid fan of all things soccer and the O’s. Originally from the west, he grew up in the Baltimore area. He returned to the west for college where he earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University and spent 36 years working at the Idaho National Laboratory prior to retiring in 2013. It was during his school years in Baltimore where he learned to play soccer and that developed into a life long passion. He played competitively for over 40 years and was a four year starting goalkeeper at MSU. He also coached and refereed in the Idaho premier soccer and High School programs for many years.