Football

Champions League Power Rankings: Barcelona, Aston Villa and Juventus climb; Real Madrid stumble

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1m ago

Oct 05, 2024 / 1291 Views

Evan Walker

Matchday 2 of the Champions League league phase put our power rankings in a blender. From Juventus winning despite going down to 10 men to Real Madrid and Bayern Munich picking up surprising losses away from home, this was a round to show that no one can get too comfortable with their standings at any point during this tournament. Aston Villa and Feyenoord are our biggest risers after picking up impressive victories while Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain took a tumble.

Let's take a look at this round's power rankings:

Rank	Team	Change	Analysis
1	Manchester City	+2	There's no way to bounce back from Champions League disappointment quite like ripping off 28 shots and seeing four different players find the back of the net. Welcome back Ilkay Gundogan who scored his first City goal since departing for Barcelona.
2	Liverpool	+3	Under Arne Slot, Liverpool will show up, score more goals than their opponents and do what's needed to manage the game. It's a way to win quite a lot of games and made easier by having Mohamed Salah in the side.
3	Juventus	+3	With their goalkeeper sent off, Juventus showed impressive grit and Dusan Vlahovic went into takeover mode to leg out a win. This is what good teams do and with each week, Juventus are showing that they're quite capable under Thiago Motta.
4	Barcelona	+4	Making good use of a get-right game, Barcelona were able to run up the score on Young Boys and put the disappointment of Monaco behind them. Bonus points for Robert Lewandowski netting a brace.
5	Arsenal	+4	Arsenal's defense is top notch limiting PSG to an xG of 0.39 and even with the attack not firing on all cylinders, it wouldn't matter because Mikel Arteta has big-game players.
6	Real Madrid	-4	No Kylian Mbappe (to start the match), some problems for Real Madrid. It's poor to lose away to Lille but this isn't something that will sink Los Blancos either. They now see their 36-match unbeaten run overall end in UCL play.
7	Inter	+3	Inter rotated and still were able to blow Crvena zvezda off the pitch. While the Serbian side is much stronger at home than away, it's still impressive to put four past them.
8	Bayer Leverkusen	+3	There are three teams reamining in UCL play that haven't conceded and Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen are one of them. The German side is handling the step up in European competition well.
9	Bayern Munich	-8	Vincent Kompany's first loss as Bayern Munich manager is an unfortunate one but Unai Emery has their number.
10	Aston Villa	+6	Jhon Duran is becoming the best substitute in the game. Coming off the bench and changing the match, he was able to get Villa the win and it was a deserved one after Unai Emery's gameplan.
11	Atalanta	+1	The Europa League winners are ready for the big stage running out to a two-goal halftime lead on Shakhtar and keeping the pressure up to secure a clean sheet. An excellent start indeed.
12	Paris Saint-Germain	-8	There's concern creeping in with Gianluigi Donnarumma's perfromance against Arsenal. While PSG will make the knockouts, failing to score a goal agisnt top opposition could see their run end right there.
13	Benfica	+1	The Kerem Akturkoglu show continues. Since joining Benfica he has four goals and two assists in all comeptitions as this is turning into quite a balanced side.
14	Borussia Dortmund	+1	Dortmund will petition to face Kasper Schmeichel every week after that seven-goal performance. Karim Adeyemi was stellar and after being shock Champions League finalists there could be something brewing with Dortmund again.
15	Sporting Club Lisbon	-2	It could've been worse considering the pressure that Sporting's defense were put under by PSV all match but it also could've been a lot better with how tough some of Sporting's later matches will be. You take the draw but you're not happy with it.
16	Atletico Madrid	-9	It's one thing for a vintage Diego Simeone defense to go out the window, it's another for Atleti to not be able to attack after how much was invested in Julian Alvarez and Conor Gallagher.
17	Brest	+2	The surprise package of the tournament with six points through two matches, Brest are enjoying their inaugural Champions League. campaign.
18	Lille	+4	Rode a first-half penalty to defeat Real Madrid in front of their home faithful. What a result for Lille to pick up their fist points in the league phase.
19	Monaco	+1	Monaco went down 2-0 and bounced back for a draw. That'll do after already picking up a victory in the first match of UCL play. Four points is something anyone would take.
20	Sparta Praha	+5	Another surprising team putting in strong performances, Sparta drawing Stuttgart has them in a good spot to advance to the playoff round.
21	RB Leipzig	-4	RB Leipzig went up a man, got Juventus' keeper sent off and still found a way to lose. Not great.
22	PSV	+1	It's good to bounce back against Sporting CP and Jerdy Schouten could have one of the goals of the tournament when it's all said and done.
23	Celtic	-3	The real Celtic is somewhere between the one that dispatched Slovan Bratislava and the one who fell to Dortmund but Brendan Rodgers needs to get that balanced side to appear quickly.
24	Milan	-3	At this rate, struggling to put together attacks against Bayer Leverkusen, just making the round of 16 may be an accomplishment for Milan.
25	Girona	-1	Two own goals and a missed penalty in a winnable game isn't good enough. Girona have gone through a lot of change this season but they're their own worst enemies at the moment.
26	VfB Stuttgart	+1	Attacking is good but not when chances can't be converted. Stuttgart are still playing as a fun team to watch, but that doesn't always lead to results in UCL.
27	Feyenoord	+9	Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Feyenoord will need to send Girona flowers for bailing them out from their own mistakes but three points will go a long way to making the top 24 even if they aren't performing well enough.
28	Dinamo Zagreb	+6	What a way to bounce back from losing to Bayern Munich. It's not the greatest match as Zagreb would've liked to win but picking up a point is an important start.
29	Club Brugge	--	It wasn't pretty but Brugge got the job done and picked up three points. They have given themselves a chance.
30	Bologna	-4	Another match to forget and Bologna have failed to score a goal in two UCL matches so far. Panci button?
31	Young Boys	-3	Young Boys almost scored a goal which I guess counts for something?
32	Shakhtar Donestk	-2	Missing a penalty that would've secured victory. Their first match followed up by being trounced by Atalanta is not great.
33	Crvena zvezda	-2	A match to forget in Italy in what could be a long UCL of matches to forget for the Serbian side.
34	SK Strum Graz	-1	Austria hasn't had a great tournament so far but it's all about the fun they have along the way right? Strum Graz are just here for the ride.
35	RB Salzburg	-3	I knew Salzburg couldn't defend coming into UCL, but the attacking woes will have this team struggling to stay off the bottom of the table which is a far cry from a side that used to be a pest to make the last 16.
36	Slovan Bratislava	-1	No shame in getting worked over by Manchester City. It happens to most teams.