UEFA Champions League 2025/26: The Road to the Final

The UEFA Champions League in its expanded Swiss model format has delivered everything UEFA promised and more. More meaningful matches. More unexpected results. More nights that remind you why this competition sits at the pinnacle of club football. As the knockout rounds approach, the field has been narrowed to the 16 sides that have demonstrated the consistency and quality to survive what is, in the new format, a more rigorous group phase than at any point in the competition's history.

The Champions League's New Shape

The Swiss model phase replaced the traditional group stage with a league format in which every team plays eight matches against different opponents. The top eight advance directly to the last 16; teams placed ninth to 24th enter knockout play-offs; those finishing 25th or below are eliminated. The format rewards consistency over the course of a long phase rather than the ability to navigate a particular group, and the early results have suggested it has achieved its aim of raising the standard of competitive football across the competition.

For clubs from smaller leagues — and even mid-table sides from the major leagues — the new format creates both an opportunity and a danger. Eight competitive matches against varied, high-quality opposition is a genuine test that exposes weaknesses a traditional group stage might allow a team to hide.

Real Madrid: The Perennial Favourites

No club in football history has a relationship with the Champions League quite like Real Madrid's. Their record — 15 European Cups, a template of tournament performance that includes coming from behind in matches that appeared lost — makes them the competition's defining institution. In 2025/26, Carlo Ancelotti's side have navigated the phase comfortably, with Mbappé's introduction adding a dimension of individual genius that complements rather than disrupts the collective system built around Vinicius Jr., Bellingham's former teammate from his early career, and Rodrygo.

"This is what the Champions League does to you — you feel like anything is possible. That belief is Real Madrid's greatest weapon." — Carlo Ancelotti

The Challengers

Manchester City have shown the kind of control and depth that makes them formidable in the knockout rounds. Arsenal, returning to the latter stages of the competition for the first time in nearly two decades, bring a tactical cohesion that could unsettle the established giants. Bayern Munich on home soil — the final is in Munich — have extra motivation to perform at the highest level in front of their own supporters. And Paris Saint-Germain, reinvented since Mbappé's departure, have constructed a team identity that makes them dangerous in a way they rarely were when built around a single superstar.

Follow every Champions League result, group table and knockout fixture live on FootScoreNow — updated in real-time throughout the competition.