The 2025–26 UEFA Champions League was the 71st season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 34th season since it was rebranded from the European Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
The final was played on 30 May 2026 at Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary. Defending champion Paris Saint-Germain successfully defended the title, defeating Arsenal 4–3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw, to become the second club to win back-to-back titles in the UEFA Champions League era, matching Real Madrid's feat in the 2016–17 edition.
As winners of the Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain automatically qualified for the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League league phase, the 2026 FIFA Intercontinental Cup final, the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup group stage, and earned the right to play against Aston Villa, the winners of the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League in the 2026 UEFA Super Cup.
This was the first Champions League season to feature six clubs from one nation, with England earning an extra spot through UEFA coefficient ranking and Tottenham Hotspur having won the previous season's UEFA Europa League.
Association team allocation A total of 82 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Liechtenstein which did not organise a domestic league and Russia which was suspended). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: Associations 1–5 each had four teams. Association 6 had three teams. Associations 7–15 each had two teams. Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein and Russia) each had one team. The winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League and 2024–25 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. The two associations with the best coefficients in the 2024–25 season each had one European Performance Spot into the league phase. The winners of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League could not fill the European Performance Spots.
Association ranking For the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2024 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24. The table reflects Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA.
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below: – European Performance Spot, the additional berths for associations who finished in the top 2 of the 2024–25 association coefficients – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders
+Association ranking for 2025–26 UEFA Champions LeagueRankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes1104.3034 290.2843 89.489486.624566.831661.3003756.3162848.800938.6001036.0501136.0501232.9751332.6001431.6251531.5251631.45011731.1251828.0001927.775RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes2025.52512125.3752222.96502322.10012421.8752521.5002621.3752720.3752820.1252919.6253013.2503113.1253211.5413311.5003411.1253510.8753610.6253710.6253810.375RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes3910.00014010.0000419.5831429.208438.625448.500458.250467.625477.375487.207496.625506.000515.998525.791535.708544.957551.832
Distribution
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous roundFirst qualifying round (28 teams) 28 champions from associations 25–27 and 30–55 (except Liechtenstein)Second qualifying round (30 teams)Champions Path (24 teams) 8 champions from associations 16–24 (except Russia) 2 champions from associations 28 and 29 as the teams with the highest club coefficients, originally from the first qualification round 14 winners from the first qualifying roundLeague Path (6 teams) 6 runners-up from associations 10–15Third qualifying round (20 teams)Champions Path (12 teams) 12 winners from the second qualifying round (Champions Path)League Path (8 teams) 3 runners-up from associations 7–9 1 third-placed team from association 6 1 fourth-placed team from association 5 3 winners from the second qualifying round (League Path)Play-off round (14 teams)Champions Path (10 teams) 4 champions from associations 11–14 6 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Path)League Path (4 teams) 4 winners from the third qualifying round (League Path)League phase (36 teams) UEFA Europa League title holders 2 associations with the highest coefficients from the previous season received an extra Champions League league phase berth. 10 champions from associations 1–10 6 runners-up from associations 1–6 5 third-placed teams from associations 1–5 4 fourth-placed teams from associations 1–4 1 champion from association 15 as the team with the highest club coefficient, originally from the second round of the Champions Path 5 winners from the play-off round (Champions Path) 2 winners from the play-off round (League Path)Knockout phase play-offs(16 teams) 16 teams ranked 9–24 from the league phaseRound of 16(16 teams) 8 teams ranked 1–8 from the league phase 8 winners from the knockout phase play-offs
The information here reflects the ongoing suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list were made:
The champions of associations 23 (Cyprus) and 24 (Hungary) entered the second qualifying round (Champions Path) instead of the first qualifying round.
As the Champions League title holders (Paris Saint-Germain) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made:
Olympiacos as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the Champions Path of the qualifying phase or play-off round, entered the league phase instead of the Champions Path second qualifying round. Slovan Bratislava and Qarabağ, as the two clubs with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the Champions Path first qualifying round, entered the Champions Path second qualifying round.
Teams The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: TH: Champions League title holders EL: Europa League title holders 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.: League positions of the previous season EPS: European Performance Spots – the additional berths given to clubs from the two associations with the highest coefficient points in 2024–25
The label of European Performance Spots and title holders already qualified via league position are superscripted.
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).
+Qualified teams for 2025–26 UEFA Champions LeagueEntry roundTeamsLeague phase Paris Saint-Germain TH Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool Arsenal Manchester City Chelsea Newcastle United EPS Napoli Inter Milan Atalanta Juventus Barcelona Real Madrid Atlético Madrid Athletic Bilbao Villarreal EPS Bayern Munich Bayer Leverkusen Eintracht Frankfurt Borussia Dortmund Marseille Monaco PSV Eindhoven Ajax Sporting CP Union Saint-Gilloise Galatasaray Slavia Prague Olympiacos Play-off round Celtic Basel Sturm Graz Bodø/Glimt Third qualifying round Nice Feyenoord Benfica Club Brugge Fenerbahçe Second qualifying round Copenhagen Maccabi Tel Aviv Dynamo Kyiv Red Star Belgrade Rijeka Lech Poznań Pafos Ferencváros Qarabağ Slovan Bratislava Viktoria Plzeň Rangers Servette Red Bull Salzburg Brann Panathinaikos First qualifying round Malmö FF FCSB Ludogorets Razgrad Olimpija Ljubljana Milsami Orhei Drita Kairat KuPS Shelbourne Noah RFS Víkingur Gøta Zrinjski Mostar Breiðablik Linfield Differdange 03 Žalgiris Hamrun Spartans Iberia 1999 Egnatia Levadia Tallinn Dinamo Minsk Shkëndija Inter Club d'Escaldes The New Saints Budućnost Podgorica Lincoln Red Imps Virtus
Schedule The schedule of the competition was as follows. One "exclusive week" was held in which Thursday was also a matchday. All matches in other weeks were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from Matchday 8 (Wednesday only) and the final.
+Schedule for 2025–26 UEFA Champions LeaguePhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifyingFirst qualifying round17 June 20258–9 July 202515–16 July 2025Second qualifying round18 June 202522–23 July 202529–30 July 2025Third qualifying round21 July 20255–6 August 202512 August 2025Play-offsPlay-off round4 August 202519–20 August 202526–27 August 2025League phaseMatchday 128 August 202516–18 September 2025Matchday 230 September – 1 October 2025Matchday 321–22 October 2025Matchday 44–5 November 2025Matchday 525–26 November 2025Matchday 69–10 December 2025Matchday 720–21 January 2026Matchday 828 January 2026Knockout phaseKnockout phase play-offs30 January 202617–18 February 202624–25 February 2026Round of 1627 February 202610–11 March 202617–18 March 2026Quarter-finalsrowspan="3" 7–8 April 202614–15 April 2026Semi-finals28–29 April 20265–6 May 2026Final30 May 2026 at Puskás Aréna, Budapest
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Play-off round
League phase
The league phase draw for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League took place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on 28 August 2025. The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each based on their UEFA club coefficient, except for the Champions League title holders, who were automatically placed as the top seed in pot 1.
The 36 teams were manually drawn and then automated software drew their eight different opponents at random, determining which of their matches were at home and which ones away. Each team faced two opponents from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. Teams could not face opponents from their own association, and could only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association.
Bodø/Glimt, Kairat, Pafos and Union Saint-Gilloise made their debut appearances in the league phase/group stage. Kairat, based in Almaty, became the easternmost team to ever qualify for the Champions League proper, and, after being drawn to play away against Sporting CP, broke the record for the longest trip in UEFA competitions, travelling from Almaty to Lisbon. In addition, Bodø/Glimt, based in Bodø within the Arctic Circle, became the northernmost European team to ever compete in the Champions League. This marked the first time a Norwegian team participated in the competition proper since the 2007–08 season, and was also the first season since 2005–06 in which no Ukrainian sides qualified for the group stage/league phase.
A total of 16 national associations were represented in the league phase.
Table The top eight ranked teams received a bye directly to the round of 16. Teams ranked from 9th to 24th contested the knockout phase play-offs, with teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th were eliminated from all competitions.
Results
Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The top eight teams from the final standings in the league phase entered at the round of 16.
Bracket
Knockout phase play-offs
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsMinutes played1 Kylian Mbappé Real Madrid159122 Harry Kane Bayern Munich1410393 Anthony Gordon Newcastle United10771 Khvicha Kvaratskhelia Paris Saint-Germain1141 Julián Alvarez Atlético Madrid12406 Erling Haaland Manchester City8756 Ousmane Dembélé Paris Saint-Germain8278 Victor Osimhen Galatasaray7841 Luis Díaz Bayern Munich98010Seven players6
Team of the Season The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.