The 2025–26 UEFA Champions League league phase began on 16 September 2025 and ended on 28 January 2026. A total of 36 teams competed in the league phase to decide the 24 places in the knockout phase of the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League.
Bodø/Glimt, Kairat, Pafos and Union Saint-Gilloise made their debut appearances in the league phase/group stage, with Kairat, based in Almaty, becoming the easternmost team to ever qualify for the Champions League since the introduction of the group stage. 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. This was also the first season since 2005–06 in which no Ukrainian sides qualified for the group stage/league phase. After being drawn to play away against Sporting CP, Kairat broke the record for the longest trip in UEFA competitions, travelling from Almaty to Lisbon.
A total of 16 national associations were represented in the league phase.
Format Each team played eight matches, four at home and four away, against eight different opponents, with all 36 teams ranked in a single league table. Teams were separated into four pots based on their 2025 UEFA club coefficients, and each team played two teams from each of the four pots – one at home and one away. The top eight teams in the standings received a bye to the round of 16. The teams ranked from 9th to 24th contested the knockout phase play-offs, with the teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th were eliminated from European competition.
Tiebreakers Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points upon completion of the league phase, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine their rankings:
While the league phase was in progress, teams were ranked according to criteria 1–5 only, and if still tied, were given equal ranking and sorted alphabetically. Criteria 6–10 were only used after the final matches took place.
Goal difference; Goals scored; Away goals scored; Wins; Away wins; Higher number of points obtained collectively by league phase opponents; Superior collective goal difference of league phase opponents; Higher number of goals scored collectively by league phase opponents; Lower disciplinary points total (direct red card or expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point); UEFA club coefficient.
Teams and seeding The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each, with the Champions League title holders automatically placed as the top seed of pot 1. All remaining teams were allocated to pots based on their 2025 UEFA club coefficients. The participants included: 29 teams which entered at this stage 7 winners of the play-off round (5 from the Champions Path, 2 from the League Path)
Key to coloursTeams ranked 1 to 8 advanced to the round of 16 as a seeded teamTeams ranked 9 to 16 advanced to the knockout phase play-offs as a seeded teamTeams ranked 17 to 24 advanced to the knockout phase play-offs as an unseeded team
+Pot 1TeamNotes Paris Saint-Germain 118.500 Real Madrid 143.500 Manchester City 137.750 Bayern Munich 135.250 Liverpool 125.500 Inter Milan 116.250 Chelsea 109.000 Borussia Dortmund 106.750 Barcelona 103.250+Pot 2TeamNotes Arsenal 98.000 Bayer Leverkusen 95.250 Atlético Madrid 93.500 Benfica 87.750 Atalanta 82.000 Villarreal 82.000 Juventus 74.250 Eintracht Frankfurt 74.000 Club Brugge 71.750+Pot 3TeamNotes Tottenham Hotspur 70.250 PSV Eindhoven 69.250 Ajax 67.250 Napoli 61.000 Sporting CP 59.000 Olympiacos 56.500 Slavia Prague 51.000 Bodø/Glimt 49.000 Marseille 48.000+Pot 4TeamNotes Copenhagen 44.875 Monaco 41.000 Galatasaray 38.250 Union Saint-Gilloise 36.000 Qarabağ 32.000 Athletic Bilbao 26.750 Newcastle United 23.039 Pafos 11.125 Kairat 5.500
Notes
Draw The draw for the league phase pairings was held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on 28 August 2025, 18:00 CEST, with Zlatan Ibrahimović, the UEFA President's Awardee, and Kaká as drawing guests. All 36 teams were manually drawn using physical balls. For every team manually drawn, a guest on stage pressed a button for the automated software to digitally draw their opponents at random, determining which of their matches would be at home and which ones away. Each team faced two opponents from each of the four pots, one of which they faced 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. The draw started with Pot 1, assigning opponents to all teams, one after the other, and continued with the other pots in descending order until all teams were assigned their opponents. Due to the number of English clubs competing in the League Phase, all non-English clubs in Pot 1 were required to draw two English fixtures to avoid deadlocking the draw.
+ League phase opponents by club Club Pot 1 opponents Pot 2 opponents Pot 3 opponents Pot 4 opponents Home Away Home Away Home Away Home Away Paris Saint-Germain Bayern Munich Barcelona Atalanta Bayer Leverkusen Tottenham Hotspur Sporting CP Newcastle United Athletic Bilbao Real Madrid Manchester City Liverpool Juventus Benfica Marseille Olympiacos Monaco Kairat Manchester City Borussia Dortmund Real Madrid Bayer Leverkusen Villarreal Napoli Bodø/Glimt Galatasaray Monaco Bayern Munich Chelsea Paris Saint-Germain Club Brugge Arsenal Sporting CP PSV Eindhoven Union Saint-Gilloise Pafos Liverpool Real Madrid Inter Milan Atlético Madrid Eintracht Frankfurt PSV Eindhoven Marseille Qarabağ Galatasaray Inter Milan Liverpool Borussia Dortmund Arsenal Atlético Madrid Slavia Prague Ajax Kairat Union Saint-Gilloise Chelsea Barcelona Bayern Munich Benfica Atalanta Ajax Napoli Pafos Qarabağ Borussia Dortmund Inter Milan Manchester City Villarreal Juventus Bodø/Glimt Tottenham Hotspur Athletic Bilbao Copenhagen Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain Chelsea Eintracht Frankfurt Club Brugge Olympiacos Slavia Prague Copenhagen Newcastle United Arsenal Bayern Munich Inter Milan Atlético Madrid Club Brugge Olympiacos Slavia Prague Kairat Athletic Bilbao Bayer Leverkusen Paris Saint-Germain Manchester City Villarreal Benfica PSV Eindhoven Olympiacos Newcastle United Copenhagen Atlético Madrid Inter Milan Liverpool Eintracht Frankfurt Arsenal Bodø/Glimt PSV Eindhoven Union Saint-Gilloise Galatasaray Benfica Real Madrid Chelsea Bayer Leverkusen Juventus Napoli Ajax Qarabağ Newcastle United Atalanta Chelsea Paris Saint-Germain Club Brugge Eintracht Frankfurt Slavia Prague Marseille Athletic Bilbao Union Saint-Gilloise Villarreal Manchester City Borussia Dortmund Juventus Bayer Leverkusen Ajax Tottenham Hotspur Copenhagen Pafos Juventus Borussia Dortmund Real Madrid Benfica Villarreal Sporting CP Bodø/Glimt Pafos Monaco Eintracht Frankfurt Liverpool Barcelona Atalanta Atlético Madrid Tottenham Hotspur Napoli Galatasaray Qarabağ Club Brugge Barcelona Bayern Munich Arsenal Atalanta Marseille Sporting CP Monaco Kairat Tottenham Hotspur Borussia Dortmund Paris Saint-Germain Villarreal Eintracht Frankfurt Slavia Prague Bodø/Glimt Copenhagen Monaco PSV Eindhoven Bayern Munich Liverpool Atlético Madrid Bayer Leverkusen Napoli Olympiacos Union Saint-Gilloise Newcastle United Ajax Inter Milan Chelsea Benfica Villarreal Olympiacos Marseille Galatasaray Qarabağ Napoli Chelsea Manchester City Eintracht Frankfurt Benfica Sporting CP PSV Eindhoven Qarabağ Copenhagen Sporting CP Paris Saint-Germain Bayern Munich Club Brugge Juventus Marseille Napoli Kairat Athletic Bilbao Olympiacos Real Madrid Barcelona Bayer Leverkusen Arsenal PSV Eindhoven Ajax Pafos Kairat Slavia Prague Barcelona Inter Milan Arsenal Atalanta Bodø/Glimt Tottenham Hotspur Athletic Bilbao Pafos Bodø/Glimt Manchester City Borussia Dortmund Juventus Atlético Madrid Tottenham Hotspur Slavia Prague Monaco Galatasaray Marseille Liverpool Real Madrid Atalanta Club Brugge Ajax Sporting CP Newcastle United Union Saint-Gilloise Copenhagen Borussia Dortmund Barcelona Bayer Leverkusen Villarreal Napoli Tottenham Hotspur Kairat Qarabağ Monaco Manchester City Real Madrid Juventus Club Brugge Tottenham Hotspur Bodø/Glimt Galatasaray Pafos Galatasaray Liverpool Manchester City Atlético Madrid Eintracht Frankfurt Bodø/Glimt Ajax Union Saint-Gilloise Monaco Union Saint-Gilloise Inter Milan Bayern Munich Atalanta Atlético Madrid Marseille PSV Eindhoven Newcastle United Galatasaray Qarabağ Chelsea Liverpool Eintracht Frankfurt Benfica Ajax Napoli Copenhagen Athletic Bilbao Athletic Bilbao Paris Saint-Germain Borussia Dortmund Arsenal Atalanta Sporting CP Slavia Prague Qarabağ Newcastle United Newcastle United Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain Benfica Bayer Leverkusen PSV Eindhoven Marseille Athletic Bilbao Union Saint-Gilloise Pafos Bayern Munich Chelsea Villarreal Juventus Slavia Prague Olympiacos Monaco Kairat Kairat Real Madrid Inter Milan Club Brugge Arsenal Olympiacos Sporting CP Pafos Copenhagen
League phase table
Results summary
By team
Matches The fixture list was announced on 30 August 2025, two days after the draw. This was to ensure no calendar clashes with teams in the Europa League and Conference League playing in the same cities.
In principle, each team did not play more than two home matches or two away matches in a row, and played one home match and one away match across both the first and last two matchdays. The matches were played on 16–18 September (exclusive week), 30 September – 1 October, 21–22 October, 4–5 November, 25–26 November, 9–10 December 2025, 20–21 January and 28 January 2026. All matches were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except for the competition's exclusive week, which also included Thursday fixtures. The scheduled kick-off times were generally 18:45 (two matches on each day) and 21:00 (remaining matches) CET/CEST. The only exception was the final matchday, where all fixtures were played simultaneously at 21:00.
Times are CET or CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Matchday 1
Matchday 2
Matchday 3
Matchday 4
Matchday 5
Matchday 6
Matchday 7
Matchday 8
Notes
References
External links