The first matchday of the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League, spread across three days, is now complete, with last evening's encounters played and therefore a first ranking table has been established for the current league phase.
Newcastle - FC Barcelona and Manchester City - SSC Napoli were the highlighted showdowns, with the Spanish champions visiting a returning Newcastle, who were eliminated in the UCL group stage two years ago and didn't qualify for the new format last season. Meanwhile, the Italian champions travelled to face the always fearsome Manchester side.
Although Newcastle proved to be a tough nut to crack for the first 20 minutes, with relentless pressing and impressive intensity, fuelled by the home crowd, Barça found their playstyle soon enough to calm things down, control the match, and eventually leave victorious. And even though this was all thanks to the usual play-making suspects such as Pedri and De Jong, it was the Catalan team's two signings, goalkeeper Joan García and striker Marcus Rashford, who actively settled the win, with the former denying the few chances created by the hosts, and the latter scoring a brace in uncharacteristic fashion: a header from the penalty spot, and a beautiful crossed folha seca from outside the box. Newcastle scored the 1-2 very last-minute, but the visiting squad regained control of the ball to make it definitive in the discount time.
Erling Haaland is now the fastest player ever to reach 50 UCL goals
There was a lot of expectation to see Napoli debut on the UCL this season after last year's brilliant campaign, but it was away, at the Etihad Stadium rather than their home ground, the Diego Armando Maradona, and one can only do so much against an early red card and some Norwegian guy called Erling Haaland. Di Lorenzo was sent off as early as the 26th minute, which coincidentally spoiled another return, that of Kevin De Bruyne against his former club, as he was immediately subbed off by Conte. From there, Haaland scored in the 56th minute, becoming the fastest player ever to reach 50 Champions League goals, doing so in just 49 matches, surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy's record of 66. Even though Napoli held out thanks to the saves of their keeper Milinkovic-Savic, Jérémy Doku sealed the local victory in the UCL opener.
However, both Barça and Man City fell just short of the coveted top-eight places for now, due to goal difference. Follow the link above to see the full UCL standings... and its surprising current leader.