It is the way of the soccer world right now that competitions must get larger, with more teams, more matches per team and a much lower average reading on the jeopardy per match scale.
Aside from the obvious wear-and-tear concerns, I don't really mind this development. (Maybe it's the American in me: I'm used to bloat.)
I don't mind that the Euros have 24 teams, or that the Champions League has 36, or that the World Cup has 48 -- and that two-thirds of the competitors reach the knockout rounds in all of these tournaments. That has allowed for super-cool stories to develop.
Ukraine snuck into the knockout rounds at Euro 2020 (amid growing geopolitical stress) and then upset Sweden. Slovenia and Slovakia eked out advancement in 2024, too, and nearly pulled upsets. And while a huge Champions League with a huge set of knockout rounds has allowed more time for struggling powers like PSG and Manchester City in 2024-25 to rebound from poor starts, it also allowed Bodø/Glimt to find their footing and eventually take down Manchester City, Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan, consecutively, while nearly making the quarterfinals last season.
I don't mind bloat as long as it allows for proper storytelling and extra world-building. In a world with tilted finances, where only a few teams are actually capable of winning the whole thing, a fun journey almost matters more than the eventual destination.
Matchday 1 of this year's Champions League concerned me a bit in that regard. There was still fun to be had -- Como ran away from RB Leipzig in their first ever European group stage game, Real Madrid outlasted Inter Milan in a battle of European royalty, and 11 of 18 matches featured at least four goals. Goals are fun.
- UCL Talking Points: Who's to blame for Man United mess?
- Reaction: Man City can't compete with gold standard PSG
- Kirkland: Real Madrid did win, but glory feels far away
Still, Davids weren't exactly scoring damage points on Goliaths. PSG, Barcelona and Bayern Munich beat Slovan Bratislava, Feyenoord and Bodø/Glimt by a combined 16-2, and debutants LASK, Sabah and Viking all lost by a combined 8-1. It was a foreboding start, a sign that maybe Europe's giants have even further distanced themselves from the pack. I'm a fan of storytelling, and that's the least fun story to tell.
Luckily, Matchday 2 gave us delightful plot twists and track meets.
It also took us to Norway.
Main characters of the week
No. 1: Viking FK
Viking FK has lived a full club life since its founding in Stavanger in 1899: Early regional titles in the 1920s and 1930s; national titles in the 1950s, when that became a thing to aspire to; great spells (four straight titles in the 1970s); poor spells (relegation in 1986 and 2017); the requisite financial overextension in the 2010s (who among us).
On occasion, they've also enjoyed the glory of home European nights. They hosted Borussia Mönchengladbach (and drew 1-1) in the 1979-80 UEFA Cup, held Barcelona to a 0-0 draw in qualification for the inaugural 1992-93 Champions League) and walloped Sporting CP and drew with Werder Bremen in the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup. And in maybe the most famous night of the old Stavanger Stadion, they thumped Chelsea 4-2 in the 2002-03 UEFA Cup despite goals from Frank Lampard and John Terry.
Their current home, Viking Stadion, saw a win over Monaco in the 2005-06 UEFA Cup, plus a couple of fun victories in the 2022-23 Conference League. But after Tuesday, it's also the place where Viking hung three goals on -- and frustrated the hell out of -- Bayern Munich.
You have to take your victories where you can find them early in an eight-game Champions League league phase campaign, where the results aren't incredibly consequential and the surprises are minimal. But Viking vs. Bayern was an absolute blast. Viking ran the "score on your first shot" play -- every team should try that, it works out great for you -- and then went up 2-0 late in the first half. Bayern charged back because Bayern always charge back, but after a gorgeous Konrad Laimer-to-Luis Díaz goal gave the German giants the lead, Michael Olise got a red card, and it pretty visibly flipped the momentum in the match.
Herman Haugen headed in a tying goal over an unsuspecting Alphonso Davies (who probably should have been more suspecting), and Peter Christiansen forced a Jonas Urbig save in extra time. The stats for the game as a whole were one-sided (xG: Bayern 3.3, Viking 0.7), but when the match ended Viking appeared most likely to score next.
THIS GAME HAS EVERYTHING! 🍿 Viking grab a last-minute equalizer against Bayern ⏰ Watch the #UCL on @ParamountPlus 📺 https://t.co/RG22Z265hf
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 13, 2026
The Norwegian style of play might be the most aesthetically pleasing in the world at the moment: a mix of optimism and organization in attack, and a willingness to leave yourself a little exposed in the back. Bodø/Glimt have mastered this style and translated it well to European competitions -- they beat Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday to make it six straight home wins in the Champions League or Champions League qualification -- and Viking's first two Champions League league phase matches have featured 10 combined goals and a draw their fans will be talking about for ages.
I am a total sucker for stories like this.
And while we're celebrating teams that do everything possible to increase the pure entertainment value of the early stages, let's shout out Club Brugge, the watchability kings. So far they've lost 3-2 to Aston Villa and beaten Inter 4-3, and really, Tuesday's win undersold the amount of quality opportunities created: both teams underachieved against xG.
In 18 league phase matches since the start of 2024-25, they've scored multiple goals seven times and allowed multiple goals 10 times. They've won a match while allowing three, and they've drawn a match while scoring three. They are speed horses for this competition, and they are appreciated.
No. 2: Paris Saint-Germain
We're used to PSG taking their time shifting into gear in a given season. Luis Enrique has loads of both stars and incredible teenagers to give minutes to, and he knows he doesn't really have to find or lean on his best 11 until the spring. A few early losses won't exactly hurt them in Ligue 1, and two years ago they won the Champions League despite at one point going winless for four straight league phase matches.
They started this season in a little too much of a funk, however, with a loss to Lens in the Trophée des Champions and just two points in their first three Ligue 1 matches. They were tied for 13th with Le Mans after three league matchdays. That's a bit much.
Luckily, they know how to shift into gear.
In their last five matches on each side of the international break, they've won five matches by a combined 16-5. Enrique's still rotating like crazy -- 20 different guys have started in these five matches -- but PSG's ridiculous depth almost requires him to, and everyone's contributing. Ousmane Dembélé has three goals and four assists in four starts in this span, Ferran Torres has five goals, newcomer Maghnes Akliouche has two goals and an assist, Désiré Doué (who's still only 21, by the way) has a goal and two assists. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia hasn't contributed much, but PSG has still turned into a wrecking ball.
They seemed to have a point to prove on Wednesday in Manchester.
TWO IN TWO MINUTES FOR PSG 😮💨 Désiré Doué with the goal and the assist 🔥 https://t.co/OKjsesexlN
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 14, 2026
Visiting fellow petrol staters Manchester City, who are staring potentially epic penalties in the face, PSG went up 2-0 within 15 minutes thanks to goals from Doué and Dembélé and got a third from midfielder Vitinha before halftime. After Erling Haaland pulled one back for the home team, Akliouche put away an eventual 4-2 win with a goal in the 62nd minute.
City had won eight straight matches in all competitions and had humiliated Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield over the weekend, but PSG basically scored an early-round knockout. The xG figures favored City (2.6 to 1.8), but that can be pretty common when one team takes an early lead. At the time of Vitinha's goal, PSG had attempted eight of the match's 10 shots with a higher volume of touches in the attacking third. They were incredible, and they didn't need long to put the match away.
No. 3: Manchester United
In a way, Manchester United's 2-0 away loss to Atlético Madrid was like just about any other United match in 2026-27, in that the underlying stats that are usually pretty predictive weren't at all. Their xG differential was +0.8 in their 2-0 loss to Hull City to kick off the Premier League season, and in three matches with near-even xGDs, they've lost once with two draws. They're sixth in the Premier League in xG differential but 13th in the table, and at the time of Leny Yoro's 74th-minute red card in Madrid, they trailed 1-0 with a plus-0.4 xGD. (Atleti also ran the "Score on your first shot" play. I'm just saying, it's a great play!) The match turned one-sided after that.
Poor fortune and random, crippling mistakes are wrecking United's season when they really don't look too poor on paper.
Of course, United's players evidently have their own theory of what's going wrong, one revealed by Lisandro Martínez in postgame interviews. "We did a fantastic season last season and now we expect more from the top, more players to compete, because many teams bring many players as well," he said. "Atlético have an amazing team and they deserved to win today, but I expect more [investment] -- 100%. I expect more from our technical director."
Now, I know that other clubs have invested more than Manchester United in recent years, legally and illegally, and Martinez also made an interesting point about not "[staying] with what you did last season" because opponents always adjust. But despite the Premier League generally losing its mind from the perspective of cumulative transfer fees, I'm never going to see "completely rebuilding your midfield for €173.2 million," as United did this past summer, as a lack of investment or a simple "run it back" approach. United brought in Carlos Baleba, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans in to address last year's biggest question mark; that's a pretty big change! And they've spent €1.1 billion in transfer fees alone over the past five years. A competent organization should be able to build a perfectly stable team with that.
Even if it's not really a lack of investment, though, United have definitely suffered from a lack of a plan, and it's made competent investment nearly impossible. There's been no ideological consistency in their managerial hires, and their common lineup this season includes two guys who signed or debuted for Louis van Gaal, one for Jose Mourinho, two for Ole Gunnar Solskjær, two for Erik ten Hag, three for Ruben Amorim and one for Michael Carrick. That's a diverse set of influences, and it can't be a surprise when a lack of a plan produces a lack of cohesiveness. But I guess none of what I'm saying is all that original, is it?
No. 4: Serie A
There are nine leagues with multiple Champions League entries this season. Three of them are averaging at least 2.0 points per game among their teams in the field: England's Premier League (2.4), Spain's LaLiga (2.4) and Germany's Bundesliga (2.0). After a perfect 5-for-5 in the wins department in Matchday 1 (followed by a 3-for-3 performance in the Europa League), the Premier League gave away some points this week thanks to the clubs in Manchester.
Four more leagues are averaging at least 1.0 points per game among their teams: France's Ligue 1 (1.5), Portugal's Primeira Liga (1.5), the Netherlands' Eredivisie (1.0) and Norway's Eliteserien (1.0). Hell yeah, Norway. Hanging out with the big boys.
Granted, some of those league successes are coming from one team -- PSG has six of Ligue 1's nine points, and Sporting CP has all six of the Primeira Liga's -- but it's still pretty damn noteworthy that we've gotten this far down the list without mentioning Serie A. After this week's 0-fer, with four losses from four matches, Italian teams now have four points from their first eight matches. Como thumped RB Leipzig in their Champions League home debut in September, and Roma managed a draw against a Fenerbahce team that got blown out by Aston Villa on Wednesday, and that's it.
Now, it's probably not as awful as it seems. Roma played well for 80 minutes against Real Madrid before getting Real Madrid'd at the end for a 4-3 defeat, and Como (lost 3-2 to Feyenoord), Inter (4-3 to Brugge) and Napoli (3-1 to Villarreal) all had at least slightly positive xG differentials, meaning that while their finishing lacked, they were creating equal or better chances than their opponents. But this is still a dire start for a league that has produced just one quarterfinalist in the last three tournaments. (Granted, Inter made the finals in 2025. But that's still it.)
Through two matches each, all four Italian teams have allowed at least two goals from high turnovers, and Roma are one of two teams (along with LASK) to have allowed three. Combined with the fact that the teams are a combined minus-2 in set piece goal differential, you could start to put together a case that Serie A teams aren't really keeping up with the tactical times. But I'll let that one marinate a bit longer before pursuing it further.
Best players of Matchday 2
One thing I like to do if I miss a given match is look at each player's combined xG + xPVA to see who did the most dangerous things in that match. I assume you know xG by now, but xPVA is basically everything else a player did to increase their team's chances of winning (or Expected Point Value), beyond shot attempts - passes, ball recoveries, tackles, et cetera. It's a useful at-a-glance tool, and I figured I'd share the top 15 most dangerous players of Matchday 2.
I enjoy that this is such a mix of expected and unexpected players. It's definitely not a surprise to see Liverpool's Bradley Barcola and Brugge's Nicolo Tresoldi making the list after their respective hat tricks, though Tresoldi evidently produced negative xPVA -- no progressive passes or carries or really anything else, just shots that went into the net. (And hey, if you're only going to do one thing, that's a good one.)
It probably also isn't a surprise that there are two other Brugge players on the list (Carlos Forbs and Romeo Vermant) considering how well they tore apart Inter's midfield. Lautaro had a brace against Brugge, but he could have had so much more: He attempted 12 shots worth 3.0 xG and put nine of those shots on goal. It was honestly one of the most prodigious performances you'll ever see.
There are plenty of familiar names elsewhere -- Erling Haaland, Atleti's Ademola Lookman, Arsenal's Eberechi Eze, Bayern's Luis Diaz -- but among the others let's shout out LASK's Florian Flecker (two goals in 45 minutes against Liverpool), Slavia's Lukás Provod (eight shots worth 1.4 xG, four on target, but somehow no goals) and Fenerbahce's Vedat Muriqi (two shots worth 0.9 xG).
And now, the Power Rankings
This is purely who I would pick if teams were playing this weekend.
1. Barcelona. Two wins and a 9-2 scoring margin thus far. In fact, in all competitions this season they have a perfect 10 wins from 10 matches, with a 43-9 scoring margin. Forty-three! Raphinha has 14 goals and three assists! Lamine Yamal has eight and nine! Fermín López has five and two! Karim Adeyemi has four and two! Anthony Gordon has two and four! Barca are pressing, passing and shooting better than ever, and while we'll have to wait and see if Hansi Flick's high-wire style can win a long series of knockout rounds, there is no question who the best team in Europe is at the moment.
We'll see if we're still saying that after next week: They visit PSG on Tuesday, then host Real Madrid for the first El Clásico of the season on Sunday.
2. PSG. Still only up to sixth in Ligue 1. I doubt they're worried.
3. Arsenal. Methodical and confident.
4. Bayern Munich. I'm not worried about them, but I'm not sure the "allow a goal in the first two minutes every match" approach of the last week is a good thing. (Missing Olise to a red card suspension for next week's Arsenal match stinks.)
5. Manchester City. Crush Liverpool and then get crushed by PSG. A pretty extreme week after a pretty extreme few weeks.
6. Real Madrid. If this isn't a damn "Real Madrid in the Champions League" chart, I don't know what is.
7. Aston Villa. After only one win in their first six matches in all competitions, they're now unbeaten in five, and they've scored 17 goals in the process.
8. Liverpool. It took Bradley Barcola until his seventh match to score in Liverpool red, but a hat trick made up for lost time.
9. Sporting CP. They haven't lost since April, and they've won each of their first two Champions League matches by multiple goals.
10. Atlético Madrid. Five straight wins since the loss to Liverpool.
11. VfB Stuttgart. They were handed a pretty light start -- Viking, at Slovan Bratislava -- and made the most of it with two easy wins. The challenges start with a visit from Atlético next week, but they're already two-thirds of the way toward advancing to the knockouts.
12. Real Betis. Two matches, two 3-2 wins. They drew 67,114 to the Estadio La Cartuja for the win over Porto on Wednesday, and it sounded like 100,000.
13. Borussia Dortmund. After six straight wins before the international break, they have a draw and a loss since. Someone always gets hit by the post-break funk.
14. Manchester United. I'm ranking them 14th because they're basically eighth and 20th at the same time.
15. Club Brugge. Averaging three goals for and three goals against. Hell yeah.
16. Como. They got xG'd against Feyenoord on Wednesday -- three goals allowed from 0.5 xG -- but they still play awfully pretty ball. They belong here.
17. Roma. They're still unbeaten in Serie A play, but their defense isn't holding up in this competition.
18. Villarreal. The Yellow Submarine can't get going in league play, but their finishing was on point against Napoli.
Villarreal's #UCL drought is OVER ‼️ Tani Oluwaseyi puts the exclamation point on a 3-1 win over Napoli that snaps a 12-match UCL winless streak for the Yellow Submarine 💛 Watch the #UCL on @ParamountPlus 📺 https://t.co/A0vDz0nXM9
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 13, 2026
19. Inter Milan. Two one-goal losses isn't the end of the world, but I'd recommend beating Shakhtar next week.
20. RB Leipzig. The reverse Dortmund. RBL had lost three of four before the break and have won two by a combined 7-0 since their return.
21. Bodø/Glimt. Cue the "Chelsea Dagger!"
Bodø/Glimt finally have their goal! 🤩 Fredrik Sjøvold keeps his cool inside the box with a composed finish. Watch the #UCL on @ParamountPlus 📺 https://t.co/rCFubYSL57
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 14, 2026
22. Porto. Their league form (eight matches, eight wins) means I'm not worried about their 0-for-2 start here. But upcoming home matches with PSV and Napoli are pretty big.
23. Lens. They've won only two of their last seven matches, and they have to visit Club Brugge next week.
24. Viking. My new lifelong favorite team.
Bayern are STUNNED inside two minutes as Gianni Stensness fires Viking ahead 🤯 Watch the #UCL on @ParamountPlus 📺 https://t.co/CTfjUaZRfD
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 13, 2026
25. PSV Eindhoven. Ivan Perisic played really well against RB Leipzig on Tuesday, but his failed penalty was a two-point miss in a one-goal loss.
26. Feyenoord. The crowd pop after a Feyenoord home goal is something else.
Anis Hadj Moussa can NOT stop scoring 🇩🇿 His sixth goal in five games completes the Feyenoord comeback 🔥 Watch the #UCL on @ParamountPlus 📺 https://t.co/5EBQeF1lSw
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 14, 2026
27. Galatasaray. The home crowd showed out against Barcelona as always, but the home team could only hold on for about 50 minutes.
28. Shakhtar Donetsk. Last year's Conference League semifinal run seems to have carried over. They have four points in two matches, and in their first "home" match at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge, they took the fight to AEK Athens awfully well.
🇺🇦 1,700 miles from home 🇺🇦 Shakhtar Donetsk hold their nation's flag as they take the field at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea's home stadium will act as Shakhtar's home ground for their European fixtures this season because of the ongoing war in Ukraine. https://t.co/FCQ8ywUEn4
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 14, 2026
29. Fenerbahçe. The 6-0 loss to Villa was exaggerated -- xG: Villa 3.1, Fenerbahce 1.9 -- but ... woof all the same.
30. Lille. Hey, they were tied with Arsenal for 60 minutes, at least.
31. Napoli. They're eighth in Serie A, and they're 33rd in xG differential after two matches here. Max Allegri was an unambitious hire, and the year sure hasn't started like he hoped.
32. AEK Athens. They had a chance to join the six-point club but could only hold onto a lead against Shakhtar for six minutes.
33. Sabah. They understood the assignment: Their home game with Slavia was probably the most winnable match on the docket, and a crowd of 29,670 showed up to Baki Olimpiya Stadionu to help make sure they won it.
34. LASK. Good: They kept fighting against Liverpool and grabbed a couple of late goals. Bad: They were down 6-1 at the time.
35. Slavia Prague. They're 0-for-2, and they still have to play No. 3, 4 and 7 on this list. Yikes.
36. Slovan Bratislava. They play at LASK on Nov. 3 and host Shakhtar on Dec. 9. If they want points in this competition, those are very important matches.