Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid ... Qarabag? Making sense of Champions League MD2

We're starting to fig retired the bushed for the new, 36-team Champions League and its league phase. The aboriginal matchdays aren't peculiarly do-or-die and the stakes are low, but the little enactment you get done early, the much you permission yourself aboriginal on.

Paris Saint-Germain took lone 4 points from their archetypal 5 matchdays past year, had to rally precocious to suffice for the knockout rounds, past had to look Liverpool successful the circular of 16. That they knocked Liverpool disconnected connected the mode to winning the rubric doesn't alteration the information that they didn't marque beingness casual connected themselves.

This clip around, astir of the large names person gotten disconnected to a tenable start, though Liverpool, Barcelona, Chelsea, Newcastle and Atletico Madrid person each mislaid a lucifer and Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen are among the teams stuck astatine 2 points. There's inactive plentifulness of clip for things to spell precise close oregon precise incorrect here, though the information that Azerbaijani champion Qarabag is 1 of the six teams with a cleanable six points is perfectly delightful.

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Qarabag's aboriginal success, adjacent if it was against Benfica and FC Copenhagen, is 1 of the reasons a contention similar this is amusive to follow. The travel is ever unique, adjacent if the destination -- a last featuring 2 of astir 8 oregon 9 apt clubs -- is familiar. So let's speech astir the astir absorbing teams, matches and ups-and-downs from the 2nd Champions League matchday of 2025-26.

Team of the Week, No. 1: Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid began this play stuck successful mud. Following a disappointing FIFA Club World Cup performance, they opened 2025-26 with a nonaccomplishment to Espanyol and draws against Elche and Deportivo Alaves. They did bushed Villarreal 2-0 successful what could extremity up being a cardinal effect for LaLiga positioning, and they astir took a constituent from Liverpool successful their Champions League opener acknowledgment to immoderate rekindled Anfield magic from Marcos Llorente. But they inactive mislaid that one, 3-2, successful what was a one-sided matter connected paper, and they followed that with a blown pb and a 1-1 gully astatine Mallorca.

Atleti had won lone 1 of their archetypal six matches successful each competitions. They were 12th successful LaLiga. But a cleanable week has wholly reversed their trajectory.

First, they came backmost to bushed Read Entire Article