UEFA Champions League: 2025/26 Season Review

Summary: UEFA Champions League 2025/26 season review.

• Arsenal went unbeaten in all 14 Champions League matches to reach their first final in 20 years.
• PSG are back as defending champions, chasing a historic back-to-back European title.
• Mbappé broke Ronaldo’s league phase scoring record with 13 goals, finishing on 15 for the season.
• Arsenal face PSG in the Budapest final on 30 May – Saka vs Dembélé, Arteta vs Luis Enrique.
• A season full of records: youngest-ever player, first perfect league phase, and Cypriot history made.

The 2025/26 UEFA Champions League delivered everything a football fan could ask for – a record-breaking scoring machine, a dominant English side that defied history, the defending champions returning for more glory, and a final for the ages set beneath the lights of Budapest’s Puskás Aréna.

Champions League: The New League Phase Format

For only the second season running, the Champions League’s revamped 36-team league phase – replacing the traditional group stage – shaped the competition’s destiny. The league phase kicked off on 16 September 2025 and ran through to 28 January 2026, with the knockout rounds beginning on 17 February.

The expanded format delivered more drama, more upsets, and more records than almost any previous edition. Four sides – Bodø/Glimt, Kairat, Union Saint-Gilloise, and Pafos – were making their first-ever appearances in the league phase. And almost immediately, history was being made in unexpected corners of the continent.

Mbappé’s Record-Shattering Campaign

If there was one name that defined the 2025/26 Champions League from its very first matchday, it was Kylian Mbappé. The Real Madrid striker put on a one-man scoring masterclass that had analysts reaching for the record books.

Mbappé scored 13 goals in seven league phase outings alone – a new competition record for that stage, eclipsing Cristiano Ronaldo’s previous best of 11 set in 2015/16. His feats included hat-tricks, doubles, and moments of sheer individual brilliance that reduced defences to spectators.

Among his highlights: a hat-trick at Kairat Almaty on Matchday 2, and then the second-fastest hat-trick in Champions League history in Real Madrid’s 4-3 win over Olympiacos on Matchday 5 – scoring three times in six minutes and 42 seconds.

A knee injury sidelined him for two knockout matches, but he returned to add goals in both legs of the quarter-final. His final tally of 15 goals makes him the Champions League top scorer for the second time in his career – only Ronaldo has managed more in a single edition. Real Madrid, however, would not make it past Bayern München in the quarters.

Champions League: Arsenal’s Flawless Journey

No team in 2025/26 was more relentless, more clinical, or more historically significant than Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. The Gunners didn’t just reach the final – they did so without losing a single match across the entire campaign.

Arsenal became the first team in the competition’s history to win all eight matches in the league phase. That perfect record was not a fluke – it reflected a team operating at the highest level of organisation, pressing, and finishing.

In the knockout rounds, they defeated Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 on aggregate in the Round of 16, then edged Sporting CP 1-0 in the quarter-finals. The semi-final against Atlético de Madrid was the sternest test yet.

The first leg in Madrid ended in a hard-fought 1-1 draw, with Viktor Gyökeres converting a penalty for Arsenal before Julián Alvarez levelled from the spot. In the second leg at the Emirates, Bukayo Saka’s finish on the stroke of half-time proved to be the decisive moment, giving Arsenal a 1-0 win on the night and 2-1 on aggregate.

The victory extended Arsenal’s unbeaten Champions League run to 14 fixtures – a new club record. Of the 44 instances of a team playing 14 or more games in a European campaign, Arsenal are the only one to remain unbeaten throughout.

PSG: Defending Champions Return

Having claimed the Champions League crown in 2024/25, Paris Saint-Germain returned this season with the same hunger – and the same talismanic forward leading their charge. Under Luis Enrique, PSG played a brand of football that was at once fluid, intelligent, and devastating on the counter.

Ousmane Dembélé – the reigning Ballon d’Or winner – was once again PSG’s key man, and he delivered in the most pressure-filled moments. In their semi-final against Bayern München, he swept Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s precise pass into the net just three minutes into the second leg at the Allianz Arena, effectively sealing their place in the final despite Harry Kane’s late reply.

PSG became the first French club to appear in successive Champions League finals, and the first defending champions to reach the final since Real Madrid in 2017/18. The narrative around them is electric: can they become only the second team in the Champions League era to successfully defend the continental crown?

The Finalists: Budapest Awaits

On 30 May 2026, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal meet at Budapest’s Puskás Aréna for the showpiece of European club football, with kick-off at 18:00 CET. It is a final that pits the best team in England against the best team in France – a clash of styles, philosophies, and footballing cultures.

Road to the Final at a Glance

Champions League: Season Highlights & Records

Beyond the headline acts, 2025/26 was a season studded with remarkable individual and team performances that will be remembered long after the final whistle in Budapest.

Chelsea became the first team in Champions League history to have three teenagers score in the same match, with Marc Guiu, Estêvão, and Tyrique all on the scoresheet in their 5-1 win over Ajax. Antoine Griezmann scored in his 12th successive Champions League season – a mark of extraordinary longevity at the highest level.

PSG’s 7-2 demolition of Bayer Leverkusen in October was one of the most eye-catching results of the league phase, as was Liverpool’s stunning 5-1 victory at Frankfurt – a result that announced the Reds as genuine contenders before their semi-final exit to PSG.

Arsenal’s domestic dominance also underlined their European credentials: with only three matches remaining in the Premier League, the Gunners sat five points clear at the top of the table, on the verge of a historic domestic and European double.

What the Champions League Final Means

Few Champions League finals in recent memory carry quite the weight of this one. For Arsenal, it is the culmination of a 20-year journey back to the biggest stage in club football – and a chance to erase the memory of their 2006 final defeat to Barcelona. Their two-decade gap between finals is the longest by an English side since Liverpool in 2005.

For PSG, the motivation is different but no less powerful: immortality. A second straight European crown would make them only the second team in the Champions League era to successfully defend the title. Luis Enrique’s men have the experience, the firepower, and the belief.

Grab a PlayStation gift card to stock up on FIFA points, Champions League content, or just make a night of it on the PS Store before the biggest game of the season kicks off.

On 30 May 2026, Budapest holds its breath. The star-ball trophy awaits its new (or returning) king!