Ranking Champions League field: PSG, Barcelona or Liverpool? - ESPN

Welcome to Year 4 of the Champions League rankings, where I… rank all the teams in the Champions League.

This year is notable for one specific reason: Manchester City are not No. 1. In fact, they're not even close to being No. 1. City have been the favorites to win the European Cup in six of the past seven seasons, and they were second favorites the only time they weren't No. 1.

Without City leading the way, it's way more open at the top than it has been in a long time. Five clubs can make reasonable cases that they should be the favorites to win it all — and then there are also a bunch of others that could win it all, too.

— Ogden: UCL storylines to watch this season
— O'Hanlon: Worst 2025 summer transfers, from Cunha to Isak
— UCL draw reaction: Must-see games, easiest/toughest paths

So, who is No. 1 in our rankings? Who is No. 36? And where does everyone land in between? Let's get to the list.

The easternmost team to ever play in the Champions League got here with shootout victories in qualifying against Celtic and Slovan Bratislava. Per Transfermarkt, the entire squad maintains a transfer value of about €12.53 million. That's roughly the same as the average player on Benfica, who according to the betting odds, have about a 1-in-200 chance of winning this tournament.

Based on rough estimates, I'm pretty sure Qarabag would be favored to beat Kairat by around a full goal on a neutral field. That's roughly the same gap as between, say, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Remember Mislav Orsic? Only a select few of you will, but he came on in the knockouts against Spain at Euro 2020, scored and assisted on a goal, and sent the game to extra time. He had a hat trick as Dinamo Zagreb eliminated Jose Mourinho's Tottenham from