The first week of the newly redesigned Champions League was never going to be anything legendary; even though each of the top 15 teams in Opta’s power rankings are all in the Champions League field, there were only three matches between teams among those 15. This was set up to be like the beginning of domestic league play: We’ll sing the Champions League anthem (or at least the “THE CHAMMMMPIONNNNNS” part at the end), we’ll celebrate the competition’s return and we’ll worry about the big matches later.

The final shift of matches on Thursday — with actual down-to-the-wire wins and fun crowds at Atletico Madrid and Brest and a delightfully weird Monaco-Barcelona match — was awfully fun, however. And with 18 matches in a short amount of time, there’s always going to be a lot to keep track of. We’ll always see star turns and plot twists.

There are basically four tiers of Champions League teams: the obvious favorites, the teams very likely to advance to the knockout rounds (and hoping for a run beyond that), the teams just hoping to maybe make the round of 16 and the extreme long shots. That 21 of the 36 teams are in the latter two categories tells you this isn’t the most balanced competition in the world, but there are still loads of storylines to follow.

After each of the eight matchdays in the group stage — sorry, it’s the “league phase” now — we’ll look at the best players and matches of the week, as well as what’s happening in terms of stock up/stock down within each tier.

Match(es) of the week

Let’s start with the highlights of the round and go from there.

Atletico Madrid 2, RB Leipzig 1

Granted, this one quickly became rather one-sided.

• Shots, first 21 minutes: RBL 4 (one goal), Atleti 2
• Shots, last 69 minutes: Atleti 19 (two goals), RBL 3

Still, the outcome was in doubt until the 90th minute, when Jose Gimenez headed home a well-served assist from Antoine Griezmann, and the celebrations at the Wanda Metropolitano made it feel like a proper Champions League affair.

Monaco 2, Barcelona 1

Eric Garcia’s 10th-minute red card — the product of a terrible pass from goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen — certainly clued us in as to who would eventually win this one, but the teams combined to play 18 players aged 23 or younger, which meant this was never going to be a stolid and cynical affair. We saw goals from a 22-year-old (Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche), a 17-year-old (Barca’s Lamine Yamal) and an 18-year-old (Monaco’s George Ilenikhena), and Ilenikhena’s winner was an absolute rocket.

Just a fun evening at the Stade Louis II.

Real Madrid 3, Stuttgart 1

Tuesday’s batch of matches didn’t feature a single match decided by under two goals, but that doesn’t mean they were all easy wins. And this one was an absolute blast.

Stuttgart’s first Champions League match since March 2010 — a 4-0 round-of-16 defeat in Barcelona — was back in Spain, and it unfolded a lot like Real Madrid’s last encounter with a Bundesliga team. In the 2023-24 Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund, the Blancos were the inferior team for about 60 minutes, but the underdogs couldn’t capitalize on a number of excellent opportunities, ran out of steam, and lost after goals in the 74th and 83rd minutes.

In this one, Real Madrid was again outplayed early on, with Stuttgart generating nearly twice as much xG (1.09 to 0.56) over nine shot attempts and forcing five saves from Thibaut Courtois. (A deflected shot hit the crossbar as well.) And even when Real Madrid scored in the first minute of the second half, Stuttgart tied it back up in the 68th minute. But then the predictable finally happened: Real Madrid again scored in the 83rd minute to take the lead, then put the match away with a 28-meter screamer from Endrick that damn near broke Alexander Nubel’s wrists.

Obviously, upsets are more fun than near-upsets, but Stuttgart acquitted themselves well and the entertainment value here was high.

Manchester City 0, Inter Milan 0

Not every scoreless game is created equally. The less said about the Bologna vs. Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 the better, and don’t even get me started on yet another “Arsenal refuses to take or allow shots in a big match again” nil-nil against Atalanta.

This one, however, had a lot going on. There were 35 total shot attempts worth 3.1 xG, and while City commanded the lion’s share of both of those numbers, Inter keeper Yann Sommer was brilliant, and Inter managed a couple of particularly dangerous counterattacking opportunities that suggested they were capable of stealing the match.

More than any other match this week, City vs. Inter was a demonstration of the new Champions League format. Most of this week’s 18 matches were similar enough to what we got in the previous 32-team, eight-group format, but City-Inter was a matchup of defending major-league champions, teams that would have ended up headlining different groups in the old system. Even without goals, it looked the part of a headliner.

Players of the week

Kenan Yildiz and Nicolás González, Juventus

This is an extremely new Juve, led by a new manager (Thiago Motta) and a younger crop of new (or new-ish) stars. In their 3-1 win over PSV on Tuesday, the 19-year old Yildiz and 26-year old González stole the show.

First, Yildiz opened the scoring with a brilliant strike from 17 meters out (assisted by González).

Yildiz led the team with a combined 19 progressive passes and carries, while González scored on a second-half breakaway, created three chances (including the assist) and constantly forced the issue with six one-on-one attempts.

Harry Kane, Bayern Munich

When your team scores nine goals in a single match, you’re going to end up with a load of player-of-the-week candidates. Jamal Musiala had two assists from seven chances created, Joshua Kimmich had two from five, and, in his Champions League debut, Michael Olise had a brace with goals in the 38th (assisted by Kimmich) and 61st (Musiala) minutes.

We’ll be old-fashioned, however, and go with the guy who scored four of the nine goals. Four’s a lot. Granted, three were penalties — to Dinamo Zagreb’s ultimate credit and detriment, they never stopped scrapping — but Kane became England’s all-time leading Champions League scorer with the effort, and with five non-penalty shot attempts worth 1.4 xG, he could have easily scored more in open play as well.

This was everything you could want from a Bayern performance — relentless attacking and finishing brilliance, plus a couple of defensive breakdowns that assured that they had to keep trying well into the second half — and Kane was at the center of a lot of it.

David Raya, Arsenal

The Gunners’ overly cautious big-game style — they attempted just one shot after the 18th minute! — might frustrate a neutral (like me), and it would have backfired if not for a heroic sequence from Raya, who not only saved a Mateo Retegui penalty early in the second half but also hurried back up and saved an (admittedly weak) putback attempt from Retegui as well. Those were two of only three shots Atalanta put on goal, but they salvaged a 0-0 draw.

Yann Sommer, Inter Milan

In terms of goal prevention — the xG value of opponents’ shots on target versus actual goals allowed — the only goalkeepers who performed better than Sommer (plus-1.2 goals prevented) in Week 1 were Raya (plus-1.5) and Girona’s Paulo Gazzaniga (plus-2.1), who would have absolutely made this list if not for a terribly unfortunate 90th-minute own goal. Inter’s defense was nicely organized, limiting City’s high-quality looks and blocking some of the ones they allowed, but the 35-year-old Sommer came up with five big saves and Inter earned a big opening point.

Arne Engels, Celtic

It can sometimes be difficult to measure the statistical impact of a good midfielder. Other times, it can be awfully easy. After only Celtic’s second main-stage victory in a decade — and their most resounding since beating Budapest Honved 4-0 in 1988 — the 21-year old Engels leads his team (or is tied for the lead) in goals (one), assists (one), shots on goal (three), fouls suffered (third) and ball recoveries (six), and he’s second in progressive passes (12).

(Green means completed passes, red means incomplete passes. Source: TruMedia)

It’s safe to say: That’s good. He went everywhere and did everything on a resounding Wednesday evening at Celtic Park.

Viktor Gyökeres, Sporting CP

A subject of endless transfer rumors, Gyökeres has played in eight matches, including two internationals for Sweden, and he has scored in all eight. He has eight goals in five league matches, and he scythed in a beauty from 14 meters to put Sporting up 1-0 late in the first half of a 2-0 win. It’s unfair to give Sporting one of the best pure scorers in Europe to pair with their ever-stingy defense, but here we are. (For now. I mean, someone will be writing a very large check to procure his services soon.)

Johan Bakayoko, PSV

It was a losing effort, but Bakayoko was unbelievable on Tuesday against Juventus. Anything good PSV accomplished went through him. He assisted their lone goal, and he led the team in any number of ball progression metrics: expected point value added (xPVA), expected assists from pass completions (xA), progressive carries, etc.

PSV’s passing map from Tuesday just screams “GET IT TO JOHAN.”

(Source: TruMedia)

Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Borussia Dortmund

He loves a good stepover more than anyone in Europe at the moment, and he might be the best bench player on the continent as well. The 20-year old has come off the bench in three matches this season, and in those matches, he has scored four goals in five shots in 64 minutes.

Two came in an 11-minute span on Wednesday night. BVB was a bit lucky not to fall behind early against Club Brugge, but they slowly took control of the match, and Bynoe-Gittens’ two goals — the first off of a double deflection, the second one as pure as can be — assured they got three points for their efforts.

Angel Di Maria, Benfica

He’s 36 and he continues to play at a Champions League level. In Benfica’s 2-1 win over Red Star Belgrade, he led the team in both progressive carries (eight), progressive passes (eight) and expected assists from pass completions (0.13) and drew three fouls to boot. He still knows how to stress a defense.

Hugo Magnetti, Brest

I mean, if you score your club’s first ever European goal, you make the list.

Brest had to play Sturm Graz 60 miles away in the (larger) home stadium of Ligue 2’s Guingamp, but their fans filled the Stade de Roudourou and made this a pretty memorable moment all the same.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PROJECTIONS AFTER MATCHDAY 1

Now for the projections. Opta and ESPN BET info was used to calculate the teams in each tier based on their chances of advancing to the knockout phase and chances of winning overall. The criteria for each tier are noted below.

Within each tier, who’s rising and who’s falling?

Tier 1: The favorites

Criteria: At least a 15% chance of winning the title, per the implied ESPN BET odds.

Stock up

Manchester City logoReal Madrid logoBoth teams: Real Madrid wobbled but won, and City dropped points but dominated statistically. Neither team really saw its title odds change. They’re both fine, neither will need to try too hard at this point, and this format isn’t going to force either of them to shift past about third gear all that often until March.

What Jurgen Klinsmann took away from Man City vs. Inter Milan

Jurgen Klinsmann believes Manchester City and Inter are loaded and expects both to make deep runs in the Champions League.

Stock down

None

Tier 2: Absolute contenders

Criteria: At least a 2% title chance

Stock up

Juventus logoJuventus: After a pair of dire Serie A performances (0-0 draws against Roma and Empoli), Juve started off the Champions League campaigns with brilliance. PSV haven’t dropped a point in league play yet and have outscored opponents 20-3, but after a bit of a slow start (shots after 15 minutes: PSV 4, Juve 1), Juve took total control behind Yildiz and González.

Six matches into the Thiago Motta era, Juve have yet to allow a goal. Airtight defense and sporadic moments of attacking brilliance? Sounds like the new Juve are also the old Juve!

Bayer Leverkusen logoBayer Leverkusen: On paper, they weren’t incredibly dominant at Feyenoord on Thursday — they attempted 11 shots worth 1.4 xG to the hosts’ 12 shots for 0.9, and Feyenoord had a goal disallowed for a narrow offside, too. But you will almost never see a team as ruthless with its chances as Leverkusen were.

Florian Wirtz rocketed in a goal from 20 meters out, and Jeremie Frimpong set up both Alex Grimaldo and Wirtz for easy goals in the latter stages of the first half. Leverkusen led 4-0 at half after a miscue and own goal from keeper Timon Wellenreuther, then put it in cruise control in the second half. Easy peasy.

Stock down

None

Tier 3: Spicy long shots

Criteria: At least a 0.3% title chance

Stock up

CelticCeltic: Say what you will about the new format — and the fact that both Celtic and Slovan Bratislava likely would have been Pot 4 teams, designated as fourth-place fodder in the old format — but Celtic took full advantage of starting against the worst team in the field. An Opta simulation found that a team with nine points will advance to the knockout round about 69% of the time, while a team with 10 points is almost assured of advancing. With seven matches to go, Celtic is already one-third of the way to that nine-point goal.

BrestBrest: In their first European competition, the defending third-place finishers in Ligue 1 also earned one-third (or so) of their necessary points to advance with the win over Sturm Graz. It was only their second win in six matches in all competitions this season, but it was also one of the biggest in club history.

Stock down

Milan logoAC Milan: On April 6, Milan were second in Serie A and had advanced with ease into the Europa League quarterfinals. They weren’t going to catch rival Inter for the league crown, but they had won seven in a row and 17 of 23. Things were clearly going well for Stefano Pioli & Co., right?

Since then, they’ve played in 14 matches in all competitions … and they’ve won just twice. They stumbled down the home stretch, lost to Roma in the Europa quarters and almost fell to third in league play. They’ve begun this season with just one win in five matches. They’re 10th in the league, and, after one matchday, Xth in the Champions League.

They struck quickly against Liverpool on Tuesday, getting a third-minute goal from Christian Pulisic and rendering Liverpool mostly ineffective over the first 15 minutes. Over the last 75 minutes, however, it was an onslaught. Milan were outshot 23-6 as Liverpool scored from two set pieces and a counterattack to cruise at the San Siro.

This chart tells the tale pretty well:

(Source: TruMedia)

A team so lacking in confidence desperately needed a fast start in this competition. But by “fast start,” I mean “good first match,” not “good first quarter-hour.”

Tier 4: Here for a good time, not a long time

Criteria: Uh… everyone else

Stock up

Sparta Prague logoSparta Prague: Per Opta’s power rankings, the two best European teams outside of the seven best leagues (the Big Five, plus the Dutch Eredivisie and the Portuguese Primeira Liga) both reside in Prague. Slavia will begin Europa League play next week; Sparta not only qualified for the Champions League but began with a dominant 3-0 win over RB Salzburg. They carved up the young Red Bull team (led by former Liverpool assistant Pepijn Lijnders) with perfect counterattacking sensibility, attempting only 11 shots from 30.1% possession but averaging 0.23 xG per shot, getting goals from three different players and offering Salzburg almost nothing of value.

Stock down

Dinamo Zagreb logoDinamo Zagreb: It’s safe to assume that with 36 teams ending up with between zero and 24 points — and with most between six and 18 — goal differential is going to end up deciding quite a few spots in the crowded Champions League table. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that losing your first match 9-2 isn’t a great way to position yourself in that regard.

It felt like Dinamo were cruising toward a 4-0 loss or so before waking Bayern up with a couple of delightful early second-half goals to make the score 3-2. Once Bayern had a reason to keep charging forward, they never really stopped.