The 2025-26 UEFA Champions League delivered one of the most dramatic and statistically rich seasons in the competition’s history. From a record-breaking individual scoring campaign to a nail-biting penalty shootout final in Budapest, this season had everything football fans crave.
In this complete stats breakdown, we cover the final standings, top scorers, assist leaders, tournament records, and everything you need to know about the 2025-26 Champions League season.
2025-26 Champions League Tournament Overview
The 2025-26 UEFA Champions League was the 71st season of Europe’s premier club football tournament, running from qualifying on 8 July 2025 through the final on 30 May 2026, featuring 36 teams in the competition proper drawn from 53 associations.
The tournament produced an extraordinary volume of goals and drama across its expanded league-phase format, cementing its reputation as the most competitive club competition in world football.
Across the entire campaign, 189 matches were played, producing 655 goals at an average of 3.47 goals per match, with a combined attendance of 8,377,696 fans averaging 44,326 per game.
These numbers highlight just how attacking and high-scoring this season’s Champions League proved to be compared to recent campaigns.
- Champions: Paris Saint-Germain (2nd title, back-to-back)
- Runners-up: Arsenal
- Final Score: 1–1 (AET), 4–3 on penalties
- Final Man of the Match: Vitinha (PSG)
- Total Tournament Goals: 655 goals
- Highest Scoring Teams: PSG (45 goals), Bayern Munich (43 goals)
League Phase: The New Swiss-System Format
The 2025-26 Champions League phase began on 16 September 2025 and concluded on 28 January 2026, with 36 teams competing under the Swiss-system format to determine 24 places in the knockout phase. This season also marked a historic first for several clubs.
Bodø/Glimt, Kairat, Pafos, and Union Saint-Gilloise all made their debut appearances in the league phase, with Kairat becoming the easternmost club ever to qualify for the Champions League since the group stage was introduced.
Under the Swiss-system rules, teams were ranked by points, with the top eight clubs earning a direct bye into the round of 16, while sides finishing 9th through 24th were sent into a knockout playoff round, and anything below 24th meant elimination from Europe entirely.
According to standings updates late in the league phase, Inter Milan and Juventus both sat on 12 points heading into the final round, with Borussia Dortmund close behind on 11, as the battle for playoff qualification intensified in the closing stages.
The final matchday produced late drama across the continent, and the direct round of 16 qualifiers who finished in the top eight were Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona, Chelsea, Sporting Lisbon and Manchester City.
Sixteen more sides advanced through the knockout playoff round, including Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle, Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Olympiacos, Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Monaco, Qarabağ, Bodø/Glimt and Benfica.
Interestingly, reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain finished well down the table before eventually going on to win the whole competition again, a reminder of just how unpredictable the new format can be.
Knockout Phase and the Road to Budapest
The knockout phase kicked off on 17 February with the playoff round and ran through to 30 May 2026, when the final was staged at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary, with 24 teams involved overall, 16 entering via the playoffs and 8 receiving a bye straight to the round of 16.
The quarter-final stage produced some of the season’s most emphatic scorelines. Barcelona thrashed Newcastle 7-2 to complete an 8-3 aggregate win, Bayern München beat Atalanta 4-1 for a 10-2 aggregate victory, Liverpool defeated Galatasaray 4-0, and Sporting CP knocked out Bodø/Glimt 5-0 after extra time for a 5-3 aggregate triumph.
The Final: PSG Retain Their Crown
The 2026 Champions League final was played on 30 May 2026 at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest in front of 61,035 spectators, where Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal 4-3 on penalties after the match finished level following extra time. Vitinha was named Man of the Match for PSG.
This result meant Paris Saint-Germain became back-to-back UEFA Champions League winners, retaining the crown they won the previous season. It marked PSG’s second European title overall, with Arsenal finishing as runners-up.
Top Scorer: Kylian Mbappé’s Record-Breaking Campaign
No player dominated the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League quite like Kylian Mbappé. The Real Madrid forward finished as the competition’s top scorer for the second time in his career, netting 15 goals in just 11 appearances.
His league phase form was historic in itself. Mbappé scored 13 goals in seven league phase matches alone, a new competition record for that stage, including doubles against Marseille, Monaco and Benfica, a hat-trick away at Kairat Almaty, and all four goals in a thrilling 4-3 win over Olympiacos. Remarkably, the first three goals of that Olympiacos haul arrived within seven minutes, the second-fastest hat-trick in Champions League history.
Despite missing two knockout games through a knee injury, Mbappé still added two further goals — one in each leg of the quarter-final defeat to Bayern München — to finish on 15 for the season. That tally puts him in rare company. Only Cristiano Ronaldo has ever scored more in a single Champions League campaign, with 17 in 2013-14 and 16 in 2015-16.
Chasing him all season was Bayern Munich’s veteran striker. Harry Kane finished second on the scoring charts with 14 goals, while a trio of players — Khvicha Kvaratskhelia of Paris Saint-Germain, Julián Álvarez of Atlético Madrid, and Anthony Gordon of Newcastle — all ended the campaign with 10 goals apiece.
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kylian Mbappe | Real Madrid | 15 |
| 2 | Harry Kane | Bayern Munich | 14 |
| 3 | Julian Alvarez | Atletico de Madrid | 10 |
| 4 | Anthony Gordon | Newcastle United | 10 |
| 5 | Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | Paris Saint-Germain | 10 |
| 6 | Ousmane Dembele | Paris Saint-Germain | 8 |
| 7 | Erling Haaland | Manchester City | 8 |
Assists and Playmaking Leaders
The creative side of the game was just as competitive. Michael Olise of Bayern München and Vinícius Júnior of Real Madrid finished the season tied for the most assists, with eight apiece, two clear of Paris duo Achraf Hakimi and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on six each.
Rounding out the top assist providers were Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Marseille, Antoine Griezmann of Atlético Madrid, and Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard, who each registered five assists on the season.
| Rank | Player | Club | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Olise | Bayern Munich | 6 |
| 2 | Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | Paris Saint-Germain | 6 |
| 3 | Achraf Hakimi | Paris Saint-Germain | 6 |
| 4 | Vinicius Junior | Real Madrid | 5 |
| 5 | Serge Gnabry | Bayern Munich | 5 |
Hat-Trick Heroes
This season also produced a strong crop of hat-tricks. There were eight hat-tricks recorded across the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League, including two from Mbappé himself, plus one apiece for Anthony Gordon, Fermín López, Victor Osimhen, Alexander Sørloth, Federico Valverde and Vitinha.
Individual Awards
Beyond the raw statistics, UEFA also recognized standout individual performances. hvicha Kvaratskhelia of Paris Saint-Germain was named the tournament’s best player, while Real Madrid’s Arda Güler picked up the best young player award.
Why the 2025-26 Season Stands Out
Taken together, the numbers from this campaign paint the picture of a genuinely special Champions League season: a record-setting league-phase goal spree from Mbappé, one of the most dramatic finals in years decided on penalties, and a back-to-back champion in Paris Saint-Germain who overcame a shaky league phase to lift the trophy once again.
With goals flowing at nearly 3.5 per match and attendances topping eight million across the season, the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League will be remembered as one of the most entertaining editions of the tournament in the Swiss-system era.
As football fans look ahead to the 2026-27 Champions League season, this year’s stats — Mbappé’s 15-goal haul, PSG’s successful title defense, and the record attendances — set a high bar for what’s to come in Europe’s biggest club competition.