Champions League 2026-27 Season Preview: Key Storylines and Contenders

This season’s league phase of the Champions League kicks off on Tuesday, with Real Madrid vs Inter Milan and Porto vs Man City among the standout games on the first evening.

Two-time defending champions Paris Saint-Germain are looking to make it three in a row and are the team to beat. In last week’s draw, they were handed meetings with Barcelona, Manchester City and Aston Villa, among their eight matches in the league phase of this season’s Champions League.

But several other teams fancy their chances of toppling the Parisians, including last year’s runners-up Arsenal, and Bayern Munich, who pushed PSG hard in the semifinal.

Meanwhile, Barcelona will expect to be among the favourites, while archrivals Real Madrid – now led for the second time by Jose Mourinho – will hope their Galacticos can power them to a final being held in their city, albeit at Atletico Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium.

Here are the main talking points ahead of the new campaign.

PSG’s three-peat Champions League bid

PSG are the reigning back-to-back European champions after beating Arsenal in May’s final, and Luis Enrique now has the chance to become only the second coach to win three straight Champions Leagues with the same club, after Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid did it from 2016 to 18.

Indeed, only three clubs in the competition’s history have ever won three in a row – as well as Madrid, Ajax and Bayern Munich have also done it.

Perhaps sensibly, Enrique has decided to refine rather than rehaul his successful squad in preseason – adding Ferran Torres, Lucas Digne and Mika Godts while moving on Bradley Barcola, Goncalo Ramos and Lee Kang-in.

Harry Kane-powered Bayern make bid for greatness

Bayern go into the season chasing a third straight Bundesliga title under Vincent Kompany, having won last season by 16 points with a Bundesliga-record 122 goals. They are also desperate to go further in the Champions League, where they just fell short in a thrilling semifinal tie to PSG.

Harry Kane took the 2025-26 European Golden Shoe with 36 league goals in 31 appearances (61 in all competitions for Bayern, and another 12 for England), finishing well clear of rivals Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.

At 33 and coming off a tough World Cup campaign, the question now is whether he can keep that pace up.

Bayern’s summer business has been more about retention than reinforcement – trying to fend off interest in Michael Olise and get him to extend his contract. Bayern probably just need some small tweaks around game management and the little bit of luck that every successful team needs to overhaul PSG this season.

Mourinho hopes for Madrid advantage in final

Real appointed Mourinho for his second stint at the club to end two trophyless seasons and try to get Madrid back to being genuine Champions League contenders.

Madrid will be hoping to win the competition in their own city – if at a rival ground – with a squad expensively reinforced this summer by the likes of Bernardo Silva, Denzel Dumfries, Marc Cucurella and Yan Diomande.

They enjoyed a perfect start to their La Liga campaign by winning their first three games. But even during these victories, they still looked rusty and incoherent at times, and Mourinho’s side were handed a reality check on Friday as they were beaten 1-0 by Real Betis. The Portuguese veteran coach still has a lot of work to do to create a coherent team from its talented parts.

Como’s fairytale meets the Champions League

Como finished fourth in Serie A last season, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. A club that was in Italy’s fourth tier a few years ago is now sharing a group stage with the continent’s biggest names under coach Cesc Fabregas.

The rise has been engineered by Indonesia’s Hartono family, who bought Como in 2019 and rebuilt them through three promotions in five years. They have kept investing into this summer too, with Real Madrid loanee Nico Paz signed permanently in June, a statement of intent that the last campaign was not a one-season fluke.

There are other minnows in the league stage – notably Norwegian champions Viking Stavanger and Azerbaijan’s Sabah FK – but perhaps none can match Como’s meteoric rise.

Villarreal and Real Betis show Spain’s strength in depth

Two Spanish clubs make their case for La Liga’s growing depth below Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid. Villarreal finished third last season to qualify directly for the Champions League for the first time in more than a decade.

Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis – playing in their first Champions League campaign since 2005-06 – reached the competition via Spain’s newly expanded fifth spot, earned after Rayo Vallecano’s run to the Conference League final.

Neither Villarreal nor Betis has the financial muscle of the continent’s heavyweights, but both arrive with momentum and points to prove.