Matchday one of Champions League soccer has come to a close and while Ivan Provedel stole the show with his equalizer for Lazio against Atletico Madrid. There were some strong performances all around as the top teams took care of business in group stage play. Jude Bellingham continues to drive Real Madrid forward with a 94th minute winner over Union Berlin, but it didn't move Los Blancos up the power rankings since they should've been leading prior to that point.
Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Arsenal were the top scorers of the week and all three will take top five spots in this edition as contenders are quickly beginning to separate themselves from the field. City continued to move like clockwork but after the top teams, chaos ensued. Real Sociedad had one of the biggest results, holding Inter to a draw but both Newcastle United and AC Milan will be unhappy with their performances in different ways after a scoreless draw.
Many things go into ranking teams from contenders to those who are happy to be in the completion but it's time for the second edition of Champions League power rankings which will continue after each match day of the tournament. Check out the pre-tournament rankings here if you want to see where all the sides started off
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| Rank | Team | CHG | Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
1. | Manchester City | -- | City's moment of Champions League crisis lasted less than three minutes of game time as a brace from Julian Alvarez saw City nab a comfortable victory after conceding first. |
2. | Bayern Munich | -- | Ahead 2-0 before halftime against Manchester United, Bayern are off and running. They'll want improvement on the defensive end but Thomas Tuchel will be happy with that result. |
3. | Paris Saint-Germain | -- | It took a bit for PSG to get going against Borussia Dortmund, but once they did it was smooth sailing to knock off the German side. The only qualm for Luis Enrique is that PSG didn't score more. |
4. | Barcelona | +1 | Hitting the high fives at home is quite the way to kick off your Champions League campaign as Raphinha pulled the strings and a Joao Felix brace and assist led to Barcelona being in total control. |
5. | Arsenal | +2 | The Gunners also left no doubt before the halftime whistle. While they're expected to dominate their group, but expectation has been detached from reality in previous seasons, so a job well done dismantling PSV. |
6. | Real Madrid | -- | Jude Bellingham does it again in the 94th minute of play to push Real Madrid past Union Berlin, but it shouldn't have come to that in a game that they dominated from start to finish. Who will be the secondary scorer when Bellingham cools off? |
7. | Napoli | +1 | It wasn't pretty but stopping a Braga side that can score at will is something for Napoli. They can't be saved by an own goal every week but Napoli will take an escape. |
8. | RB Leipzig | +3 | Able to shake off their struggles away from home and coming into the match with an injury to Dani Olmo, RB Leipzig got the job done against Young Boys. |
9. | Inter | -5 | Struggling in Spain, Inter dropped points to Real Sociedad. While they created attacking chances, the only reason that this doesn't drop them further is because I already had Sociedad getting out of the group. |
10. | Porto | +7 | With attrition above them, Porto were able to climb into the top ten behind an excellent first half. They'll need to keep it up against tougher competition than Shakhtar Donetsk. |
11. | Real Sociedad | +4 | Only allowing Inter to take six shots, Sociedad's defense shined but they couldn't hold on for the victory with Lautaro Martinez scoring at the death. It's an important point to help them get out of the group. |
12. | Milan | -2 | Taking 23 shots is good, scoring 0 goals from it against Newcastle isn't. Milan will need to find their finishing boots. |
13. | Atletico Madrid | -3 | It seemed like Atleti would grind out a vintage victory until they allowed a goalkeeper to score a header. Still fine in the group, it's time to have a short memory. |
14. | Manchester United | -2 | United doesn't even deserve to be this high despite what the 4-3 score may lead you to belive about their garbage time goals. Andre Onana was poor and Erik ten Hag's seat is getting warm. |
15. | Newcastle United | -1 | Yet to show that they can hang with the big teams in the world, Newcastle can't win if Alexander Isak has another match with zero shots. |
16. | Union Berlin | +2 | A narrow loss away to Real Madrid is a moral victory for the Champions League debutants. They'll have to turn moral victories into real ones though. |
17. | Lazio | +3 | It's still hard to place Lazio when for 90+ minutes it seemed sure that they would lose but at the end of the day, one point is better than no points. And you can't ignore goalkeeper goals. |
18. | Braga | -2 | What an unfortunate own goal to concede after getting back into the game. It's still promising for Braga overall but execution needs to be better. |
19. | Feyenoord | +4 | While they needed help to defeat Celtic, Feyenoord also did it without their top striker, putting them in a good position to at least make Europa League. |
20. | Benfica | -7 | Another team that was plagued by red cards, Benfica hasn't been the same since losing Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea. Now they'll need to go into matchday two without Antonio Silva. |
21. | Lens | +1 | On paper, Lens finished well enough that they could've won the match which is impressive when they don't have a league victory this season. That could be down to Sevilla's poor form though. |
22. | Sevilla | -- | Sevilla's defense is a big concern at this stage but even with that, they netted a draw. |
23. | RB Salzburg | +3 | We never know until Champions League how good RB Salzburg are and thanks to them playing up a man for most of the match, we still don't know but three points are three points. |
24. | Borussia Dortmund | -3 | I'm trying to find things to like about this team and each time I'm coming up empty. They may have shut out PSG in the first half, but that was due to poor finishing not Dortmund's defense. |
25. | Copenhagen | +4 | I want to say the same thing for Copenhagen and Galatasaray but in reverse. It was a strong start but Copengan needs to finish the game. |
26. | Galatasary | -1 | See Copenhagen; where was that to start out play? |
27. | Crvena zeveda | +3 | Going into the half leading Manchester City is a moral victory worth moving a team up even if the finish was poor. |
28. | PSV | -7 | I know it's Arsenal but that was an embarrassing loss for a PSV side that should be able to at least put the ball in the back of the net. |
29. | Young Boys | +2 | Another team where the fight was good even if the result wasn't. The Swiss side could be good enough to nick a point or two. |
30. | Shakhtar Donetsk | -2 | This is a fun team but the competition level is too high for the squad at the moment. |
31. | Celtic | - 4 | Two red cards, two goals allowed, and Celtic are now in the driver's seat for a last place finish in Group E. Brendan Rodgers has some work to do. |
32. | Royal Antwerp | -- | I may have been on to something ranking Antwerp as the worst team in Champions League out of spite coming into the competition. An opening match away to Barcelona is a tough assignment but losing 5-0 is quite a lot to forget. |
