2025-26 UEFA Champions League: League Phase Winners and Surprise Knockout Stage Clubs (and Matchday 7 and 8 Losers)
By: AT
Image Credit: Janosch Diggelmann
With the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League (UCL) knockout stage beginning this week, let us look back at the final matches of its league stage, which concluded after the eighth matchday (MD) on January 28. MD 8 included many inspiring stories, the most notable of which was SL Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scoring a stoppage-time goal to secure a 4-2 victory for the Primeira Liga club, which leaped into the knockout stage playoff round ahead of Ligue 1 club Olympique de Marseille. That club, which spent most of the league stage in a playoff knockout round position (ninth- to 24th place) crashed out of the UCL following a 3-0 loss against Club Brugge. This is a case in which one goal can make a significant difference to a club’s fate.
After MD 6, we published a comprehensive evaluation of the three most-surprising performers/clubs and the three most-disappointing performers.
This article provides an evaluation of the three underdog clubs that concluded the 2025-26 UCL league stage in the finest fashion. As a result, these three clubs either qualified directly for the round of 16 or for the playoff knockout round. These candidates exclude the aforementioned clubs and Premier League clubs, for which we wrote a separate analysis.
🇵🇹 Sporting CP
Although the Primeira Liga club spent most of the league stage in the mid-table, Sporting CP elevated their performances in the final two matches, defeating 2-1 at home on MD 7 and securing a last-minute 3-2 victory against LaLiga club Athletic Club on MD 8. Sporting ultimately finished in seventh place, enough to qualify automatically for the round of 16. Since the start of the UCL format last season, Sporting became the first — and only club, thus far — outside of Europe’s top five leagues to secure a top-eight position and an automatic qualification for the round of 16. The Lisbon-based club will compete in the UCL knockout stage for a second consecutive season, having competed and lost 3-0 on aggregate in the 2025-26 UCL playoff round against Dortmund.
🇬🇷 Olympiacos FC
After six UCL league stage matches, Greek Super League club Olympiacos FC found themselves in 27th place, having won only one match on MD 5 against Almaty (1-0, away). However, in January 2026, Olympiacos earned two clean-sheet victories: 2-0 at home against Bayer Leverkusen and 2-1 away against Eredivisie club AFC Ajax. The two victories propelled the Greek club to 18th place and into the playoff round. Olympiacos will compete in the UCL knockout stage for the first time since 2013-14. Since then, however, Olympiacos have competed in both the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League, winning the latter in 2023-24.
🇳🇴 FK Bodø/Glimt
The Eliteserien (Norwegian first division) club continues to shock Europe! Merely months after reaching the 2024-25 UEFA Europa League semifinals, FK Bodø/Glimt made their first ever UCL appearance. After six league stage matches in this season’s UCL, Bodø were out of a playoff position, but still had a chance to qualify. However, that task seemed monumental as they were scheduled to play against Manchester City at home and Atlético Madrid away on MD 7 and MD 8, respectively. Against all odds, the northern Norwegian club achieved the near-unthinkable! They defeated City 3-1 and then stunned Atlético 2-1 at Estadio Metropolitano, finishing 23rd. As a result, the residents of Bodø will witness elite knockout stage football in consecutive years; the Norwegian club will play their playoff knockout stage matches against Serie A club and defending UCL runners-up Inter Milan.
League Stage Matchday 7 and 8 Losers
Ultimately, it would not be a Go-Ahead Goal UCL analysis without mentioning the most-disappointing performers from the final two weeks of the 2025-26 UCL league stage. The three nominations go to the following clubs:
Paris Saint-Germain, which lost 2-1 to Sporting on MD 7 and dropped points at home against Newcastle on MD 8. As a result, Les Parisiens ultimately dropped out of the top eight positions and finished in 11th place, thus settling for a playoff-round matchup against league rivals AS Monaco.
Atalanta BC, which lost 3-2 at home to LaLiga club Athletic Club on MD 7 and then 1-0 away to Belgian Pro League club Union Saint-Gilloise on MD 8. The Bergamo-based club dropped out of the top 8 and finished 15th, settling for a playoff-round matchup against Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund.
SSC Napoli, which drew away to 10-men Copenhagen on MD 7 and lost 3-2 at home against Chelsea on MD 8. As a result, despite enhancing their squad during the summer after winning the 2024-25 Serie A title, Napoli finished in 25th place and crashed out of the UCL.
