| Updated: In UEFA’s Champions League main phase, every club plays eight matches against a mix of opponents, but one question hovers over the whole mini-league: do the most expensive squads actually rise to the top once the dust settles? With so much money concentrated in a handful of teams, it is easy to assume that the table will simply mirror the financial hierarchy.
Sportingpedia compared the final standings of the 36-team league phase with each club’s squad market value, ranking sides both by points won and by market value. Subtracting those positions produces an “over/underachiever” score – showing who performed above their financial profile and who underdelivered relative to the money invested in their squad.
The results are striking. Real Madrid, Manchester City and PSG all finish below what their valuations would suggest, while Arsenal and Bayern Munich lead a group of big names outperforming expectations. Even more eye-catching, though, is the pack of overachievers from outside the traditional elite: Qarabag, Olympiacos, Bodo/Glimt, Pafos, Sporting and Club Brugge all finish far higher than their place in the financial food chain would predict.
2025/26 Champions League Overperforming Teams
(Squad Value Rank vs Position in Standings)
Data Source: Transfermarkt
Overachievers: Qarabag, Olympiacos, Bodo/Glimt, Pafos, Sporting and Club Brugge
The most dramatic stories come from clubs outside the traditional financial elite. Qarabag are the standout overachievers of the league phase. Ranked just 34th by market value, they finished 22nd in the table, a swing of +12 places compared with their budget slot. Olympiacos are close behind: 29th by squad value but 18th in the standings (+11), pushing themselves well into the mid-table bracket.
Bodo/Glimt (33rd by value, 23rd in the table, +10) and Pafos (35th by value, 26th in the table, +9) also climb at least nine places above their financial station. All four operate with relatively modest budgets compared with the big five leagues, yet all outrun more expensive squads across 8 league-phase matches.
Within Europe’s established competitions, Sporting and Club Brugge sit in the same overachieving category. Sporting’s squad is only the 15th-most valuable in the tournament, but they finish 7th in the table (+8), ahead of better-resourced sides from Spain, England, Italy and Germany. Club Brugge, ranked 27th by value, end 19th in the standings (+8), placing themselves in the same overachievement bracket as Sporting and not far behind Qarabag and Olympiacos.
The giants: Real Madrid, City and PSG fall short, Arsenal and Bayern impress
On pure market value, Real Madrid (€1.35 billion) sit at the top of the Champions League hierarchy, ahead of Manchester City (€1.28 billion), Arsenal (€1.27 billion) and PSG (€1.20 billion). Yet the league-phase table tells a different story. Real Madrid only managed 9th with 15 points (-8 versus their value rank), while Manchester City finished 8th with 16 points (-6) and PSG 11th with 14 points (-7). All three remain comfortably in the top half, but none translate their financial supremacy into a dominant league-phase campaign.
By contrast, Arsenal and Bayern Munich become the reference points for efficient performance at the top end. Arsenal finished 1st in the table with 24 points despite “only” having the 3rd most valuable squad (+2 versus expectations). Bayern climb even further relative to their budget: their €981.45 million squad ranks only 8th by value, but they end the phase in 2nd place with 21 points (+6), the strongest overperformance among the blue-chip clubs.
Liverpool and Tottenham follow a similar pattern. Liverpool’s €1.04 billion squad is 7th in the value ranking, yet they finish 3rd with 18 points, four places above expectation. Tottenham, 9th by value on €876.5 million, end up 4th in the table with 17 points (+5). Together with Arsenal and Bayern, they form a group of clubs who have translated investment into results more cleanly than Real, City or PSG.
Mid-table parity and clubs performing to expectations
A smaller group of teams finish almost exactly where their budget would predict. Kairat are the purest example: 36th in the value ranking and 36th in the table, their campaign matches their financial profile perfectly. Clubs such as Monaco (21st in the table, 22nd by value) and Copenhagen (31st in the table, 32nd by value) also show minimal deviation.
Others deviate by just one or two places in either direction: Barcelona (5th in the table with the 6th-most valuable squad, +1), Inter (10th with the 11th-most valuable squad, +1), Bayer Leverkusen (16th with the 17th-most valuable squad, +1), Newcastle (−2) and Juventus and Atletico Madrid (both −1). For these sides, the league-phase outcomes broadly align with their financial strength.
2025/26 Champions League Overperforming Teams
(Squad Value Rank vs Position in Standings)
Data Source: Transfermarkt
Underachievers: Eintracht Frankfurt, Napoli, Marseille, Villarreal and the big guns
At the other end of the table, some of the sharpest disappointments come from clubs who sit comfortably in the top half by value but fall into the lower third of the standings.
Eintracht Frankfurt are the clearest case: their squad ranks 20th by market value, but they finish 33rd in the league phase, 13 places below their expected zone. Napoli suffered a similar drop, slipping from 18th by value to 30th in the table (-12). Marseille and Villarreal, both in the mid-table band by market value (16th and 26th), end up 25th and 35th respectively (both -9), leaving them among the biggest underperformers in the competition.
Even the global giants are not immune. Real Madrid’s 9th-place finish does not look poor in isolation, but relative to their position as the most valuable squad in the tournament, it still represents an underperformance of eight places. PSG and Manchester City, 4th and 2nd by market value, come in 11th and 8th in the table, underperforming their financial rank by seven and six places respectively. In a format designed to reward consistency across a broad spread of opponents, even the deepest squads have found it hard to fully justify their price tags.
Conclusion
Taken together, the comparison between the league-phase table and the market-value ranking underlines a familiar truth in a new format. Money still provides a strong foundation – the top of both tables is crowded with the same names – but it does not guarantee that the richest squads will finish exactly where their valuations suggest. A handful of giants, led by Arsenal and Bayern, have matched or exceeded their financial status, while others, such as Real Madrid, City and PSG, have left a small gap between investment and outcome.
Below that, the more telling stories come from clubs like Qarabag, Olympiacos, Bodo/Glimt, Pafos, Sporting and Club Brugge, who have turned relatively modest budgets into campaigns that rival or surpass those of far richer opponents.