Matchday three of the Champions League league phase has come to an end and two Brazilians netted hat tricks, Lille are showing that they are for real after completing a Madrid double and Barcelona are true contenders for the Champions League title. Let's take a look at the movers and shakers in this round's power rankings.
| Rank | Team | Change | Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | -- | Manchester City at home are an unstoppable force and Erling Haaland ended his scoreless run with a brace in the match. Just chugging along. |
| 2 | Liverpool | -- | The Reds keep on rolling and even Darwin Nunez is finding the back of the net. RB Leipzig provided a scare at moments but overall, Liverpool got the job done again. |
| 3 | Barcelona | +1 | Robert Lewandowski scores again, this time against his former club, and Raphinha nets a hat trick. Things couldn't be going much better for Hansi Flick's Barcelona. What a time, what a time. |
| 4 | Real Madrid | +2 | Wow. It's hard to come up with words complementary enough for scoring five unanswered goals in the second half of play. Real Madrid's comeback against Borussia Dortmund was the Vinicius Junior show and they showed exactly why they can never be counted out of this competition |
| 5 | Arsenal | -- | It wasn't a pretty match for Arsenal but they won't mind having dispatched Shakhtar Donetsk. Riccardo Calafiori has now become the latest name on the treatment table as their injury woes continue to grow. |
| 6 | Aston Villa | +4 | Villa took their chances well and Jhon Duran kept his hot form going to down Bologna. Unai Emery has this team rolling along quite well in UCL so far. |
| 7 | Inter | -- | It took until stoppage time, but Inter got their goal and got the job done. Leave them in a game for long enough and they'll make you pay. |
| 8 | Bayer Leverkusen | -- | A draw away from home is a fine result but Leverkusen had the chance to finish with nine points from three matches and they didn't take it. Slightly disappointing, but only slightly. |
| 9 | Lille | +9 | Completing the Madrid double, Lille may have needed the help of penalties, but they won't mind as all the goals count the same. |
| 10 | Atalanta | +1 | Erm ... Atalanta created an xG of 2.33 against Celtic but weren't able to score a goal for their efforts in a 0-0 draw. David Zappacosta created plenty of good chances and Mario Pasalic couldn't take the ones to came to him in a match that got away. |
| 11 | Bayern Munich | -2 | This defense has some work to do after conceding three goals to Barcelona in the first half and a hat trick to Raphinha in the match. Dropping quickly in the table, there's plenty of time to turn things around but it's not great at the moment for Vincent Kompany's men. |
| 12 | Juventus | -9 | Already picking up two red cards in only three Champions League matches, this Juventus side is leaving Michele Di Gregorio with far too much work to do. The defense has already taken a step back due to Bremer's injury and the attack has to pick up the pace soon. |
| 13 | Sporting Club Lisbon | +2 | Business as usual for Sporting as Viktor Gyokeres found the back of the net. Keep that up and they'll end up just where they want to be -- in the knockout stages. |
| 14 | Brest | +3 | Holding Bayer Leverkusen at home is an excellent result for the UCL debutants. Now on seven points, Brest can begin to dream of making it further in this competition. |
| 15 | Monaco | +4 | Monaco's start to UCL play has been an excellent one already getting three points off of Barcelona but now they have an emphatic victory too. Takumi Minamino's brace led the way as Monaco hit the high fives to shoot up the table. |
| 16 | Paris Saint-Germain | -4 | It may be time to smash the panic button on PSG. Their finishing boots haven't been there for a while now and turning 26 shots into only one goal against PSV at home is a disappointment. Luis Enrique will need to make some tweaks here. |
| 17 | Benfica | -4 | Benfica will need to prove that dropping this match to Feyenoord is more of a blip than the start of a new trend. |
| 18 | Borussia Dortmund | -4 | If the match stopped at 60 minutes, we'd be talking about how Dortmund are showing that they want to be back in the UCL final but alas that's not how soccer works and the German side will need to come back from a demoralizing loss. |
| 19 | Atletico Madrid | -3 | Oh no, dropping a home match to Lille isn't great. Considering form, these are the types of results that could see Diego Simione hit the hot seat. |
| 20 | PSV | +2 | Sooner than later, PSV will want to secure a victory but picking up a point away to PSG is only a good thing. On two points through three matches, there will be plenty of chances for PSV to get into the top 24 teams of the table. |
| 21 | Celtic | +2 | Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Celtic withstood the storm in Bergamo to net a 0-0 draw against Atalanta despite not creating any serious chances in the entire match. On four points now, Celtic should be fine but improvement is needed. |
| 22 | Milan | +2 | Mike Maignan was brilliant to keep Milan in the game when Brugge were turning up the pressure, and then Christian Pulisic did Christian Pulisic things, one-upping his own exploits by scoring an olimpico. Milan certainly have their holes but as long as Pulisic is performing, they have a chance. |
| 23 | Girona | +2 | It's time to celebrate Girona's first-ever Champions League win. They'll need to improve from the penalty spot having already missed two penalties in the tournament but those first three points hit differently. |
| 24 | VfB Stuttgart | +2 | Staying in the game long enough, Stuttgart were able to claim an important upset over Juventus. There's a long way to go but when a team only needs around nine points to advance to the next stage of Champions League play, there's a lot to be happy with. |
| 25 | Feyenoord | +2 | Going into Portugal, Feyenoord got the job done by putting three goals past Benfica. This team is finding its feet in life after Arne Slot. |
| 26 | Sparta Praha | -6 | Running into the Manchester City buzz saw happens to the best of us. Gotta just pick yourself up from that and move forward. |
| 27 | RB Leipzig | -6 | Three matches, no points. RB Leipzig will be happy about the expanded format because if this were a standard group stage, their Champions Leauge run would be essentially over. |
| 28 | Dinamo Zagreb | -- | Don't look now but Zagreb has now risen above Bayern Munich in the table despite losing 9-2 to the German side. Anything can happen in this tournament. |
| 29 | Club Brugge | -- | Champions League is all about capitalizing on your chances and Brugge just didn't do that. Now on three points through three games, this is the kind of performance that could come back to bite them as the league phase continues. |
| 30 | Bologna | -- | Bologna are still in happy to be here, but a few more losses and they could be the first team from a top-five league to be eliminated from contention for the knockouts. |
| 31 | Young Boys | -- | Holding Inter for 90 minutes wasn't enough as Young Boys managed to concede late to drop their first point of their UCL campaign. |
| 32 | Shakhtar Donetsk | -- | Despite being in every game, Shakhtar have yet to pick up a point. It doesn't feel like that'll change too soon as almost doesn't get you very far in UCL. |
| 33 | Crvena zvezda | -- | Three matches, 11 goals conceded. Not great. |
| 34 | SK Sturm Graz | -- | Still a UCL to forget for Austrian team as the only reason Sturm Graz aren't on the bottom of the table is because other sides are hemorrhaging more goals. |
| 35 | RB Salzburg | -- | A red card to Alexander Schlager and a loss to Dinamo Zagreb. Oof is all I've got to say. |
| 36 | Slovan Bratislava | -- | Eek! On the bright side, Slovan Bratislava scored a goal. On the not-so-bright side, everything else. |
