Champions League 2025/26 Matchweek Eight Review

The final night of the Champions League opening phase was supposed to tie up loose ends. Instead, it set the whole thing on fire.

Tables flipped every few minutes. Phones refreshed like slot machines. One moment Real Madrid were comfortable, the next they were staring at a goalkeeper celebrating in their six-yard box. Sporting were seconds from a play-off, then straight into the last 16. The Premier League quietly collected automatic spots like souvenirs. Arsenal, meanwhile, treated the entire thing like a training exercise and walked out with a perfect record.

And yes, a goalkeeper scored.

A WILD night last night with last-moment drama in the Champions League ended and it’s time to summarize the outcome

8 teams made it to the Round of 16
16 more will fight for that spot through the playoffs
12 teams are already going home empty-handed pic.twitter.com/4gvXBqg3tL

— 365Scores (@365Scores) January 29, 2026

Benfica madness: when the goalkeeper writes the Champions League punchline

Benfica versus Real Madrid was already leaning toward classic before the 98th minute. It had goals, swings, and that specific Lisbon electricity that makes even routine throw-ins feel loaded.

Then Anatoliy Trubin went up for a corner.

Goalkeepers only go forward in two situations. Either it is desperation or destiny. This was both.

The ball dropped into the mixer, bodies collided, and somehow the keeper met it cleanly. Header. Net. Pandemonium.

Benfica 4, Real Madrid 2.

It was not just a novelty goal. It was the goal. The one that pushed Benfica’s goal difference exactly where it needed to be to sneak into the top 24 and keep their season alive. From the brink of elimination to qualification, delivered by a man wearing gloves.

There are few better sights in football than a goalkeeper celebrating like a centre-forward who has just won the Golden Boot. Pure limbs. Pure disbelief. Teammates chasing him halfway to Porto.

For Madrid, it was one of those nights you replay on the flight home and still cannot quite explain.

Benfica are LITERALLY headed to the playoffs by non other than their goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin! A 97th minute goal that means the world to the Portuguese side 🔥🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/ZabiMpGXxr

— 365Scores (@365Scores) January 28, 2026

The champions have work to do: PSG meet the side quest

Being European champions does not buy you shortcuts anymore.

Paris Saint-Germain needed a smooth landing to secure a top-eight finish. Instead, they got dragged into a tight, scrappy 1-1 with Newcastle and slipped into the play-off places.

Not a disaster. Just inconvenient. And in this format, inconvenience is expensive.

The league phase punishes small stumbles. A couple of draws, one mistimed slip, and suddenly you are playing two extra knockout matches in February while everyone else is resting their legs.

PSG still look like PSG. Talent everywhere. Speed, power, options off the bench. But the aura of inevitability feels thinner when you have to take the long route.

Newcastle, on the other hand, did exactly what they needed. Compact, organised, unbothered by the occasion. They leave Paris with a point and a place in the knockouts. No drama required.

Real Madrid discover the tax for procrastination

Real Madrid’s league phase reads like a group project where the smartest kid waits until the last minute.

When they were good, they were terrifying. Big wins, swagger, the usual sense that history bends their way.

But the sleepier nights cost them.

The defeat in Lisbon, capped by that Trubin header, dumped them out of the top eight and into ninth. That means the play-offs. Extra games. Extra risk. Extra chances for something weird to happen.

And weird things happen all the time in this competition.

Madrid will probably still be fine. They usually are… and they have Mbappé. But they have given themselves more work than necessary, which is about the only thing this club ever truly hates.

We continue to summarize the UEFA Champions League’s most impactful players in the league phase by category: Here are the 10 players with the highest average Attacking IR 🔥 pic.twitter.com/mWvRPdy7XI

— 365Scores (@365Scores) January 29, 2026

Perfect Arsenal: eight wins, zero nonsense

While everyone else was juggling calculators, Arsenal were ticking boxes.

Eight matches. Eight wins. No debate.

Even their final night, a slightly chaotic 3-2 against Kairat Almaty, felt controlled. Like a team that knows it can find another gear whenever it needs to.

Twenty-four points from twenty-four available is absurd at this level. There are no soft fixtures in this format. No dead rubbers. Every opponent has something to play for.

Arsenal simply refused to blink.

It is the calmness that stands out most. No wild swings. No late panics. Just a steady accumulation of results that left them top of the table and straight into the last 16.

If the rest of Europe spent Matchweek 8 sweating, Arsenal spent it packing for spring.

British supremacy: the Premier League takeover

Here is the stat that makes the rest of the continent wince.

Five of the eight automatic qualification spots belong to Premier League clubs.

Arsenal. Liverpool. Tottenham. Chelsea. Manchester City.

Half the fast lane is basically an English motorway.

Liverpool wrapped things up with a 6-0 hammering that felt borderline rude. Tottenham handled their business with the quiet efficiency of a side that has finally figured itself out. Chelsea won away at Napoli with the sort of composure they have sometimes lacked domestically. City did City things.

And Newcastle still made the knockouts through the play-off path.

For all the talk about balance and variety in the new format, the English depth showed up hard. It was not just star power. It was relentlessness. Too many good players, too many rotations, too many ways to win.

Over eight matches, that depth tells.

Last-minute Sporting scenes: chaos in Bilbao

Sporting’s night in Bilbao had the emotional arc of a thriller.

They went behind early. Equalised. Fell behind again. Time draining away. Their top-eight hopes slipping toward the play-off grind.

Then the late surge.

An equaliser to level it. Then, deep into stoppage time, a winner that turned the away end into a green blur of limbs and noise.

From potential play-off participants to seventh place and straight into the last 16 in the space of a few minutes.

Those are the margins now. One swing of a boot and your February schedule either clears or doubles.

Sporting chose clarity.

Marcus Rashford is really good at football

Barcelona’s final night felt like a reminder.

A reminder that when they click, they still overwhelm teams. A reminder that their squad has game-breakers. And a reminder that Marcus Rashford remains one of the most devastating transition players in Europe.

He capped the 4-1 win over Copenhagen with a direct free kick that whipped past the wall and into the corner. Clean. Violent. No goalkeeper saving that.

It also carried a neat slice of history.

Rashford became only the second English player, after David Beckham, to score a direct Champions League free kick for two different clubs.

That feels about right. A very Beckham-esque stat for a very Beckham-esque strike.

More importantly, it helped Barcelona secure a top-eight finish and avoid the play-off lottery. One moment of quality, one less headache later.

Football is often that simple.

All the results

Ajax 1-2 Olympiacos

Arsenal 3-2 Kairat Almaty

Monaco 0-0 Juventus

Athletic Club 2-3 Sporting CP

Atlético Madrid 1-2 Bodø/Glimt

Leverkusen 3-0 Villarreal

Borussia Dortmund 0-2 Inter

Club Brugge 3-0 Marseille

Frankfurt 0-2 Tottenham

Barcelona 4-1 Copenhagen

Liverpool 6-0 Qarabağ

Manchester City 2-0 Galatasaray

Pafos 4-1 Slavia Praha

Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 Newcastle

PSV Eindhoven 1-2 Bayern Munich

Union Saint-Gilloise 1-0 Atalanta

Benfica 4-2 Real Madrid

Napoli 2-3 Chelsea

Final standings

Automatic Champions League round of 16 (top eight)

1. Arsenal

2. Bayern Munich

3. Liverpool

4. Tottenham

5. Barcelona

6. Chelsea

7. Sporting CP

8. Manchester City

Champions League play-offs (9 to 24)

Real Madrid

Inter

Paris Saint-Germain

Newcastle

Juventus

Atlético Madrid

Atalanta

Leverkusen

Borussia Dortmund

Olympiacos

Club Brugge

Galatasaray

Monaco

Qarabağ

Bodø/Glimt

Benfica

Eliminated from the Champions League

Marseille

Pafos

Union Saint-Gilloise

PSV Eindhoven

Athletic Club

Napoli

Copenhagen

Ajax

Frankfurt

Slavia Prague

Villarreal

Kairat Almaty

FAQs

Who finished top of the Champions League table?

Arsenal with eight wins from eight.

How many Premier League teams qualified automatically for the Champions League?

Five. Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City.

Did PSG avoid the Champions League play-offs?

No. They go through the play-off round.

Did Real Madrid avoid the Champions League play-offs?

No. They also head into the play-offs.

What was the wildest moment of the night?

Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scoring a 98th-minute header against Real Madrid.

What was Rashford’s milestone?

He became the second English player after David Beckham to score a direct Champions League free kick for two different clubs.

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By Nicky Helfgott / @NickyHelfgott1 on Twitter (X)

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