Following the draw for the league phase of the 2025-26 Champions League, we’ve used the Opta Power Rankings to rank each team’s fixtures in order of difficulty.
The draw for the league phase of the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League was completed in Monaco on Thursday afternoon, and now we have a list of 144 fixtures to sift through.
Over eight matchdays from September to January, the 36 teams will play four games at home and four away. The sides who finish in the top eight of the league will progress to the round of 16, and the teams from ninth to 24th will go into a play-off round to reach the last 16.
The table will look like a normal league in that everyone earns three points for a win and one for a draw before being sorted into order based on their results, but it isn’t quite the same as a normal league format. That’s because every team plays a different set of eight opponents.
So, the league phase of the Champions League isn’t really a completely level playing field. With that in mind, it’s natural to ask: who has the easiest draw, and who has the toughest?
That’s where we come in.
We have used Opta’s Power Rankings, which ranks 13,000 teams from across the world on the same scale, to give an objective average rating to each team’s set of eight Champions League fixtures for 2025-26. Using the average rating of every team’s opponents, we can work out precisely who has been given the kindest draw, and who has been given the biggest challenge.
Before we go on, it’s probably worth pointing out that having a tough set of fixtures didn’t hurt Paris Saint-Germain in the long run last season. According to our own analysis this time last year, they had the most difficult set of league phase fixtures, and they went on to win the whole thing.
That said, not everyone can rely on players as talented as PSG’s, and most teams would still have gone into the draw hoping for a kind set of games.
And so, our next question is…
Which Teams Have the Easiest Champions League Fixtures?
There’s plenty to be pleased about for the Premier League contingent, with Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea among the eight teams with the easiest sets of fixtures.
Mikel Arteta’s side have the easiest games of the English teams, and the third-easiest overall, with favourable matches against Olympiakos, Slavia Prague and Kairat, who are ranked 474th in the world in the Power Rankings. That lowly ranking has dragged Arsenal’s average down significantly, though.
Rivals Tottenham have been given a kind set of fixtures, too. Before the draw, we looked at the dream scenario for the English teams, and Spurs have ended up drawn against four of those eight teams. They face Borussia Dortmund, Villarreal, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bodø/Glimt, all of whom were among the lowest-ranked teams in their respective pots.
Among Liverpool’s opponents are Eintracht, Marseille, Qarabag and Galatasaray, while Chelsea face Ajax, who were among the lowest-ranked sides in Pot 3, plus lowly Pafos and Qarabag.
Pafos, making their Champions League debut, have been rewarded with the joint-easiest set of league phase fixtures, along with Copenhagen.
However, it’s worth delving into just how much difference Kairat’s low ranking makes. Removing them from the fixture list completely changes the outlook.
Without games against Kairat, Arsenal’s fixtures are much, much tougher. They go from third-easiest to 15th-easiest. Spurs rise to the top, while Liverpool and Chelsea are in the top five, and Manchester City jump up to seventh.
Of course, Kairat are playing in the Champions League and teams who face them should hope to take three points off them, which will be a massive help in an eight-game league. Three points could take you 20% of the way to qualification, so being drawn against Kairat could be a big help, if they are indeed as poor as their ranking suggests.
Which Teams Have the Toughest Champions League Fixtures?
The new Champions League format means the league phase is more difficult for Pot 1 teams than the old group stage was. That’s because, unlike the old format, they have to play other Pot 1 teams at this early stage.
That has hurt Bayern Munich and PSG, who were both in Pot 1 and have been handed the toughest sets of fixtures of all 36 teams. They face one another, and Bayern have also been drawn against Arsenal, Sporting CP and Union Saint-Gilloise, who have shot up the rankings to 32nd in the world. PSG will face Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham and Newcastle.
Newcastle, meanwhile, are the only Premier League team in the bottom half for fixture difficulty. With games against Barcelona, PSG, Leverkusen, Benfica, Union Saint-Gilloise and Athletic Bilbao, they have the fifth-toughest set of fixtures overall. They face five of the eight teams we included in our worst possible scenario for the English clubs.
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Champions League 2025-26 Fixture Difficulty: Who Has the Easiest and Toughest League Phase Games? Opta Analyst.
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