The Champions League play-offs have kicked off this week and fortunately don't include Barcelona as Hansi Flick's side made it safely through to the knockout stages of the 2025-26 Champions League by finishing fifth in the standings, behind Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Tottenham. Chelsea, Sporting and Manchester City were the three other teams to seal automatic promotion and so have avoided having to go into a two-legged play-off to reach the next round of Europe's top club competition.
CHELSEA (B+) They might have only finished 12th, but sealing a spot in the knockout-phase playoffs would have been beyond the Belgian minnows' wildest dreams in their first-ever UWCL tournament. A win over FC Twente and draws with PSG, Paris FC and Roma set them up for success. They even managed to keep Barcelona and Arsenal to only three goals.