“Matchday 2 of the 2025-26 Champions League provided us with the season’s first taste of jeopardy. The marquee fixture ended with Paris Saint-Germain winning 2-1 at Barcelona, Liverpool were shocked by Galatasaray, and Eric Dier and Monaco stopped Manchester City from making it two victories out of two. All of this and more has led to changes across The Athletic’s projections, which are powered by Opta data. Throughout the tournament, we will use these to understand each club’s probability of league-phase elimination, direct qualification to the last 16 via a top-eight finish, entry into the play-off round by placing ninth to 24th, and winning the whole thing in the final in Budapest on May 30. The link to the projections is below. …”
NY Times/The Athletic