Which clubs are over and underperforming in the Champions League this season?

Market value rankings 

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The second matchday of this season’s Champions League has come and gone and few would deny that there was certainly plenty of drama to be had. While the likes of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland continued their attempts to catch Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time goalscoring record, many of Europe’s biggest clubs faltered against lesser opposition and in many cases some relative minnows caused a few upsets.

It can often be hard to get a definitive answer on which clubs outrank all others as the de facto favourites for the Champions League each season, but Transfermarkt’s market values are often a good judge of the capacity of any given squad. And when we take a look at each of the 36 teams in this season’s group stage and rank them by their squad market value, we can then quickly tell which clubs are overperforming based on their rank in the competition and which ones should be doing much better. Here’s how things look after the first matchday.

Which clubs are overperforming in the Champions League?

While we certainly can’t read too much into results after just two matchday,s some of Europe’s smaller clubs have well and truly hit the ground running this season and quickly made their way up the group table. As we can see in the table above, of the bigger clubs throughout the continent, Bayern Munich (+7), Inter Milan (+6) and Paris Saint Germain (+4) all remain among the top performers in the Transfermarkt power rankings. But the more interesting stories can be found in the less valuable squads that picked up big results.

A good example of this is Azerbaijani side Qarabağ, who followed up an impressive win over Benfica on matchday one with a 2-0 victory at home to Copenhagen. Due to the fact that the Azerbaijani club have the 35th most valuable squad in the competition but are ranked 6th in the league table, they boast the highest score in our power rankings at +29. Just below them in second place is Belgian duo Union Saint-Gilloise and Club Brugge, who still remain relatively high on the tournament table despite each suffering defeat this week. 

Which clubs are underperforming in the Champions League?

When we then flip the script and take a look at which clubs are doing far worse than their squad market value would suggest, we can see where some of Europe’s biggest clubs will have to improve if they hope to qualify for the next round of the Champions League. Premier League giants Chelsea sit fourth bottom of the table, despite beating Benfica 1-0 this week. They sit just above their Portuguese opponents, but below Barcelona, who lost to PSG 2-1 on Wednesday night. But all three clubs are still doing better than Liverpool, who 17th in the league table despite having the fouth most valuable squad in the competition. 

As previously noted, these numbers shouldn’t be taken too seriously at this stage of the tournament, but be sure to come back and check up on how Europe’s biggest clubs are performing in the Champions League group stage as the season rumbles on.