Atletico, Bayern … Qarabag? Stars of Champions League MD2

We’re starting to figure out the rhythm for the new, 36-team Champions League and its league phase. The early matchdays aren’t particularly do-or-die and the stakes are low, but the less work you get done early, the more you leave yourself later on.

Paris Saint-Germain took only four points from their first five matchdays last year, had to rally late to qualify for the knockout rounds, then had to face Liverpool in the round of 16. That they knocked Liverpool off on the way to winning the title doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t make life easy on themselves.

This time around, most of the big names have gotten off to a reasonable start, though Liverpool, Barcelona, Chelsea, Newcastle and Atletico Madrid have all lost a match and Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen are among the teams stuck at two points. There’s still plenty of time for things to go very right or very wrong here, though the fact that Azerbaijani champion Qarabag is one of the six teams with a perfect six points is absolutely delightful.

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– UCL talking points: Mbappe carrying Madrid? Liverpool in trouble?
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– Women’s Champions League: Ranking all the kits of league phase

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Qarabag’s early success, even if it was against Benfica and FC Copenhagen, is one of the reasons a competition like this is fun to follow. The journey is always unique, even if the destination — a final featuring two of about eight or nine likely clubs — is familiar. So let’s talk about the most interesting teams, matches and ups-and-downs from the second Champions League matchday of 2025-26.

Team of the Week, No. 1: Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid began this season stuck in mud. Following a disappointing FIFA Club World Cup performance, they opened 2025-26 with a loss to Espanyol and draws against Elche and Deportivo Alaves. They did beat Villarreal 2-0 in what could end up being a key result for LaLiga positioning, and they nearly took a point from Liverpool in their Champions League opener thanks to some rekindled Anfield magic from Marcos Llorente. But they still lost that one, 3-2, in what was a one-sided affair on paper, and they followed that with a blown lead and a 1-1 draw at Mallorca.

Atleti had won only one of their first six matches in all competitions. They were 12th in LaLiga. But a perfect week has completely reversed their trajectory.

First, they came back to beat Rayo Vallecano 3-2 last Wednesday, with two late goals from Julián Álvarez. Then they completely dominated Real Madrid 5-2, getting two more goals from Alvarez and limiting their derby foes to six shot attempts and basically 10 minutes of coherent attacking. Then, against a prolific Eintracht Frankfurt squad that beat Galatasaray 5-1 in their Champions League opener, they dominated from start to finish. Five different Atleti players scored, starting with Giacomo Raspadori in the fourth minute, and Alvarez finished with a goal and two assists; they led 3-0 at halftime and cruised, 5-1.

Typically, a blowout win like this is defined by torrid and unsustainable finishing. But Atletico engineered the win by creating fantastic chance after fantastic chance. They attempted 18 shots worth 4.4 xG while allowing a young — and, on Tuesday, painfully naive — opponent just six shots worth 0.5.

I mean, this is pretty easy stuff.

Antoine Griezmann with his 200th goal for Atlético Madrid 😤 pic.twitter.com/zS1TRGD7he

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 30, 2025

To recap, that’s 13 goals in three matches for Diego Simeone’s squad, and Alvarez has enjoyed basically the best week of his career. We’ll need to have a conversation about the number of shots goalkeeper Jan Oblak isn’t stopping at the moment — he’s allowed 13 goals from 26 shots on target this season, including five goals from seven such shots in this three match span, and based on StatsPerform’s post-shot xG figures, he’s allowed 4.3 more goals than expected based on shot locations. But we’ll have that chat when Atleti stops creating such amazing chances in bunches.

For now, this is the best the club has looked in quite some time, and their ranking below has skyrocketed because of it.

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Two weeks ago, Opta’s supercomputer projected Bayern to finish with an average of 14.7 points in the league phase (seventh overall) and gave them a 6.2% shot at the title (sixth). Between their brilliant overall form and Tuesday’s easy three points against Pafos, they’re now at 16.0 average points (third) and an 8.4% title chance (sixth). No one’s title odds improved more in these two weeks.

It must be said that Bayern’s form really is ridiculous right now. In eight matches in all competitions, Bayern have outscored opponents by a combined 33-7; not only have they won all eight matches, they’ve only won two by fewer than two goals. They toyed with poor Pafos in a particularly Bayern-esque way, attempting 26 shots (4.5 xG) to their hosts’ six (0.4); Harry Kane had two goals, Michael Olise had a goal and two assists, and loanee Nicolas Jackson got on the board as well. This was a confidence builder for a team that didn’t really need one.

Kane has 16 goals and three assists in 651 minutes, and while six of those goals were penalties, that’s still 1.80 non-penalty goals and assists per 90 minutes — an utterly absurd pace. Over the weekend he scored his 100th goal for the club in just 104 total games; now he’s already at 102 goals in 105 games.

Bayern were seen as the big losers in the summer transfer window, missing out on Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade among others. We’ll see if their depth holds up over this endless season, but manager Vincent Kompany sure seems to have everything he needs right now.

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Team of the Week, No. 3: Qarabag

Indeed, six teams have a perfect six points from two matches thus far. It’s a veritable who’s-who of European royalty: Bayern, Real Madrid, PSG, Inter Milan, Arsenal … and Qarabag!

Qarabag followed up their historic away upset of Benfica two weeks ago with a comfortable home win over Copenhagen. They were far more patient and physical than their Danish opponents, drawing 20 fouls while committing only 10 and creating a number of high-value chances. Veteran Abdellah Zoubir, a stalwart with the club for nearly a decade, led the way with a goal and 11 combined progressive carries and passes, and Brazilian right back Matheus Silva was a relentless tone-setter, attempting 21 duels, winning 11 of them, suffering seven fouls and making 18 defensive interventions.

Even if reality strikes in upcoming matches against Chelsea, Napoli and Liverpool, their draw still features Athletic Club, Ajax and Eintracht Frankfurt, three teams in inconsistent or downright fragile form. Their odds of advancing to the 24-team knockout round are solid at the moment, and that’s the entire goal for a club this size.

Honestly, Qarabag are a prominent example for why having three large European competitions — the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League — can be great for lesser-known clubs. This is their first trip to the Champions League proper since 2017-18, but this is a seasoned European squad, one that nearly took down Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League round of 16 two years ago and one that has played in the group or league stage of some competition for 12 straight years. They’ve won at Bodo/Glimt, they’ve gone down to the wire with the best ever Bayer Leverkusen team, and they’ve played in countless qualification rounds. That doesn’t make them as talented as the other six-point clubs, but nothing is going to surprise or intimidate them.

Match of the Week, No. 1: PSG 2, Barcelona 1

It had neither the stakes nor the star power that, say, a PSG-Barca match in the later rounds might have, both because this is Matchday 2 and because so many of each team’s stars — Barca’s Raphinha, PSG’s Ousmane Dembélé, Marquinhos, Kvichia Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué — are out right now. (Barca’s Robert Lewandowski was relegated to an 18-minute shift, too.)

Still, it was a fun back-and-forth that played out about as evenly as a neutral would have hoped.

Barca’s Lamine Yamal won a lot of ground duels, as he is wont to do, and PSG’s Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, the best fullback duo in the world, combined for 23 defensive interventions, 23 progressive carries, four shot attempts and two assists — they did it all, as they almost always do. Hakimi assisted Gonçalo Ramos’ 90th-minute game winner and provided PSG with the spoils; with six points from two matches, they’re looking like they’ll probably end up far above the No. 16 seed they ended up with in last year’s knockouts.

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Match of the Week, No. 2: Bodo/Glimt 2, Tottenham Hotspur 2

In a vacuum, a draw represents improvement for Bodo/Glimt. Spurs eliminated everyone’s favorite Arctic Circle team in last year’s Europa League semifinals, finishing them off with a 2-0 win in Bodo. Improving on that result by two goals is a good thing.

But oh, what could have been. Bodo/Glimt completely controlled most of the first half, tilting the pitch and creating a huge xG advantage from the eighth minute to halftime.

They finally broke through with a pair of lovely Jens Petter Hauge goals in the second half, but they had missed out on opportunities to create an insurmountable lead, and Spurs clawed back with goals in the 68th and 89th minutes.

This was actually an almost identical reversal of Bodo/Glimt’s first match, in which they fell behind 2-0 at Slavia Prague before scoring in the 78th and 90th minutes, so they can’t complain too much. But it was still a missed opportunity.

Ranking all 36 teams after two matchdays

Since two-thirds of the teams advance to the knockout rounds and the title odds don’t change much early on, I’m not worried too much about ranking these teams by odds: consider these my updated, off-the-cuff (and, in the case of a few teams, over-reactionary) power rankings.

1. Arsenal (no change from last matchday)

Mikel Arteta’s side have mastered the art of suspense-free, forgettable wins against lesser opponents. Olympiacos did itself proud and nearly scored an equalizer, but Arsenal generated 2.7 xG to the Greek champions’ 0.5, and now they have six points.

2. PSG (no change)

The defending champs are banged up and haven’t really shifted into fifth gear yet, but … they didn’t find fifth gear until December last year, and that worked out just fine.

3. Bayern Munich (up 2)

They don’t quite have the depth of the teams around them on this list — at least, not until Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies return from their long-term injuries — but almost no one in Europe is playing better.

4. Liverpool (down 1)

The close-game gods are always fickle. Liverpool have played 10 matches in all competitions this season, and nine have been decided by either zero or one goal. The only one that wasn’t — a 4-2 win over Bournemouth — was tied in the 88th minute.

All the late heroics in the world aren’t going to save you if you ask every match to feature late heroics and after seven straight Liverpool wins, the last week has delivered close-game comeuppance. First, Liverpool allowed a stoppage time goal from Eddie Nketiah in a 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace on Saturday. On Tuesday in Istanbul, they fell 1-0 to Galatasaray when Victor Osimhen converted an early penalty and the late push never came. Liverpool managed only three long-range, lower-probability shot attempts after the 71st minute.

Last year, Liverpool basically pulled what Bayern are hoping to pull this season, making the wrong kind of transfer headlines, but finding their existing squad had everything it needed to make a wonderful run. They signed no one of consequence, but rolled to the Premier League title and fell only via penalty shootout to PSG in the Champions League. This summer they signed everyone of consequence in an all-time splurge — Alexander Isak for €145 million, Florian Wirtz for €125 million, Hugo Ekitike for €95 million, fullbacks Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong for a combined €87 million – but the chemistry and squad balance are noticeably off.

The former is fixable with time, especially when the xG gods stop toying with Wirtz; he has created 3.5 combined xG and xA in Premier League and Champions League play, but he has zero actual goals or assists. That won’t last. Still, when you sign a truckload of new attackers, plus two fullbacks much more happy in attack than defense, and you end up having to place Dominik Szoboszlai at either right-back (four matches) or defensive midfield (two) to get him on the pitch, you’re inviting defensive issues.

After allowing 0.98 goals and 1.05 xG per match in the Premier League and Champions League last season, Liverpool are allowing 1.25 and 1.15, respectively, this season. And after some recent improvement in that regard, this week’s losses saw three goals and 4.6 xG allowed.

Their Champions League title odds, per Opta, have fallen to 14.4% — fully 6.0 percentage points lower than where it was after Matchday 1.

5. Atletico Madrid (up 12)

I was probably overreacting having them as low as 17th two weeks ago, and I’m probably overreacting now, too. But goodness, they just looked otherworldly against both Real Madrid and Eintracht. (We really are going to have a chat about Oblak at some point, though.)

6. Real Madrid (down 2)

Kylian Mbappé now has five goals in two matches following his hat trick in Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Granted, three of the five goals are penalties, but his 15 non-penalty shot attempts in 171 minutes are pretty ridiculous, too. If you’re going to deliver absolutely nothing defensively (he has one ball recovery in that span, fewer than even Vinícius Júnior has contributed in barely half the minutes), you better be a major attacking merchant. He has been thus far.

7. Barcelona (down 1)

They created both danger and some self-inflicted wounds against PSG with their high pressing and high defensive line; they’re still very much Barcelona, and they’re still impossibly entertaining, but they might not have the firepower of the top three or four teams here.

8. Internazionale (no change)

In their last four matches, including Tuesday’s 3-0 cakewalk against Slavia Prague, Inter have scored nine goals — including five from Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram — and allowed just one while establishing a nice cruising altitude after two early league losses. Granted, stomping Ajax and Slavia is a pretty easy way to start Champions League play, but they didn’t set up the schedule. They just took advantage of it.

9. Manchester City (down 2)

It’s so frustrating trying to figure out if City are improving or not. They lost two in a row in the Premier League, then beat Manchester United and Napoli by a combined 5-0. They walloped a hard-to-break-down Burnley last weekend, and then they played Monaco — who were drubbed by Club Brugge two weeks ago — to a coin-flip draw. Forward, backward, forward, backward.

10. Newcastle United (up 2)

They let Union Saint-Gilloise attempt lots of low-probability shots and saved all the quality for themselves in a 4-0 win. A good way to respond to their home loss to Barcelona.

11. Borussia Dortmund (up 2)

In 20 competitive matches since April 12, Borussia Dortmund have lost once. They’ve lost only one of their last nine Champions League matches, too. This team has been fragile enough through the years that I’m afraid to even make eye contact with them for fear that they’ll fracture, but they’ve been playing some really nice ball for quite a while.

12. Tottenham Hotspur (down 2)

Thomas Frank’s Spurs are a healthy fourth in the Premier League at the moment, but dropping points in Norway — and to a team Ange Postecoglou’s squad beat last year — wasn’t great.

13. Chelsea (down 4)

Well, the good news is, they won. Heading into Tuesday’s home match with Benfica, Chelsea had won only one of their last five matches, and it was a terribly unconvincing 2-1 defeat of third-division Lincoln City in the EFL Cup. They had been outscored by a combined 8-3 against Bayern, Manchester United and Brighton. With Cole Palmer and a number of others dealing with injuries, depth was getting tested and vibes were poor. So a win’s a win.

Still, the 1-0 defeat of Benfica on Tuesday, which featured only eight shot attempts, a slight xG disadvantage (minus-0.16 xG differential) and a late red card for João Pedro, left plenty to be desired. This is not a great stretch for the Club World Cup winners.

14. Napoli (down 3)

Rasmus Hojlund scored twice in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Sporting. Players should just skip the “Signing with Manchester United” part and go straight to the “rejuvenate your career at Napoli” part.

15. Marseille (up 10)

They nearly took an away point from Real Madrid two weeks ago, they’ve won three straight Ligue 1 matches by a combined 7-1 — including a 1-0 defeat of PSG — and they absolutely destroyed Ajax 4-0 on Tuesday thanks to torrid work from Igor Paixão and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (combined: three goals, three assists). A messy August turned into an awfully happy September for Roberto De Zerbi’s squad.

16. Juventus (down 2)

Two Champions League matches, two entertaining and fantastically even draws — this time at Villarreal. Everything about this team screams “Good enough to reach the round of 16, then bow out quietly.” But every good tournament needs an entertaining team that spices things up, and I would say “center-back scoring on bicycle kicks” qualifies as spice.

Federico Gatti, that is outrageous 🤯

The Juventus center-back with a stunning bicycle kick 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ceRfFq5zDB

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 1, 2025

17. Atalanta (up 5)

Ivan Juric’s squad has responded nicely since their 4-0 pounding by PSG two weeks ago. They manhandled Torino and drew with Juve in Serie A play, and after an iffy first half and a 1-0 deficit against a strong Club Brugge squad, they significantly ramped up the attacking and came back to win. American Yunus Musah put in a lovely shift, attempting four shots and delivering the game-winning assist in 37 minutes.

18. Sporting CP (down 2)

Luis Suárez’s game-tying penalty looked like it might salvage an away point, but they had no match for Kevin De Bruyne’s creativity, with the former Man City playmaker assisting both of Hojlund’s goals.

19. Villarreal (no change)

They probably deserved a point against Tottenham two weeks ago, and you could make a case that they deserved three points against Juve.

20. Bayer Leverkusen (down 2)

They dominated PSV on paper on Wednesday, attempting 14 shots (1.8 xG) to their visitors’ six (0.5), but allowing Ismael Saibari’s breakaway goal in the 72nd minute was a two-point giveaway.

21. Eintracht Frankfurt (down 6)

How much of a difference can a single right-back make? Eintracht Frankfurt’s Rasmus Kristensen has been out with a muscle injury since mid-September; they won all three of his complete matches by a combined 12-2, but in five matches without him (including the Bayer Leverkusen match in which he got hurt), they’ve won only twice and have allowed 17 goals. They’ve given up 13 in the last three matches alone.

Since stomping Galatasaray 5-1 to open Champions League play, they’ve lost 4-3 to Union Berlin, beaten Borussia Monchengladbach 6-4 and, of course, lost 5-1 to Atletico Madrid.

Kristensen or no Kristensen, this is probably just the way it’s going to be for Eintracht this season. Even with the addition of prime-age veterans Ritsu Doan and Jonathan Burkhardt up front, this is a team defined by precocious youth. Seven players have contributed at least four combined goals and assists for the team this season, and five are 23 or younger.

Robin Koch (29) has been almost alone in attempting to bring a veteran presence to the back line, especially since 22-year-old goalkeeper Kauã Santos returned from injury. (He’s managed just a 48% save percentage in three matches.) They were no match for Atletico’s Champions League veterans, and they were torn apart with relative ease. And if you can allow four goals each to Union Berlin and Gladbach, you should probably feel lucky that you allowed only five to a Champions League team.

22. Bodo/Glimt (up 2)

The Norwegians have turned a loss into a draw and a win into a draw, but their odds of advancing to the knockout rounds are up to nearly one-in-three now, per Opta. And nothing’s more fun than sending a name-brand club up to the Arctic Circle in February.

23. Galatasaray (up 5)

They needed a strong performance following their dreadful 5-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt two weeks ago. I’d say beating Liverpool qualifies as strong.

24. AS Monaco (up 5)

Like Galatasaray, Monaco needed a good result after such a dire opening performance against Club Brugge. They got it.

25. Qarabag (up 2)

If they take points in Bilbao in three weeks, they’ve already all but advanced in this competition. Wild.

26-27. Club Brugge (down 5) and Union St.-Gilloise (down 7)

I was quite bullish on these two Belgian clubs after Matchday 1. Then they lost by a combined 6-1 in Matchday 2. Granted, Brugge only fell 2-1 on the road, but Atalanta was far superior.

28. Benfica (down 2)

Their horrific showing against Qarabag two weeks ago got Bruno Lage fired and allowed Jose Mourinho to sneak into the Champions League after failing to get there with Fenerbahce. They were solid against Chelsea, at least, but they’re gonna need points at some point.

29. Athletic Club (down 6)

​​Starting out with Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund was a tough draw, and they’ll have a chance to store up some points against Qarabag in Matchday 3, Slavia Prague in Matchday 5. But their actual performances in these first two matches left a lot to be desired.

30. Olympiacos (up 5)

They played well against Arsenal and should be on the borderline for finishing in the top 24 if they can keep morale up after matches with Barcelona (Matchday 3) and Real Madrid (Matchday 5).

31. PSV Eindhoven (no change)

They stole a point in Leverkusen, but they haven’t played very well, and their remaining schedule — Napoli, at Olympiacos, at Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, at Newcastle, Bayern — won’t offer many points if they don’t improve pretty dramatically.

32. FC Copenhagen (down 2)

It’s really hard to drop points against lower-tier teams (like Qarabag) and still advance. Copenhagen’s in a tough spot.

33. Slavia Prague (up 1)

It’s not looking good here.

34. Pafos (down 1)

On one hand, they were obliterated by Bayern. On the other, look at this damn goal!

Mislav Oršić with a stunner to score Pafos FC’s first #UCL proper goal 😤🔥 pic.twitter.com/WQCnwr8ve0

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 30, 2025

35. Ajax (down 3)

Woof. Ajax’s league form has been decent if unspectacular (they’re in third place in the Eredivisie, four points behind Feyenoord), but two Champions League matches have produced two losses by a combined 6-0.

36. Kairat Almaty (no change)

Hosting Pafos in three weeks is comfortably their best chance for points.