Champions League bracket and live rankings: Predict your winner for 2026-27 tournament!

Is there a more iconic sight in European football than 22 players lining up and taking in the Champions League anthem while the camera slowly pans from face to face?

Seasoned continental veterans and Champions League first-timers will soon experience that very feeling, as the league phase of the 2026-27 tournament gets underway on September 8, and no fewer than five British teams have the trophy in their sights.

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United are flying the Union Jack high, but the Premier League quintet may have to end Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain's hopes of stardom to get their hands on the famous handles.

Here, Sports Mole provides a comprehensive Champions League table and live scores, as well as an interactive bracket for the knockout stages, allowing you to simulate the competition and predict your winner based on current league-phase positions.

Champions League 2026-27: What you need to know

For the third year running, Europe's premier tournament - in addition to the Europa League and Conference League - will be running a 36-team league-phase format, as the days of the old group stage are further consigned to history.

The top eight teams will all advance directly to the round of 16, while clubs ranking from ninth to 24th will contest a two-legged playoff for the right to progress to the second knockout round; any sides finishing 25th or lower are eliminated, with no Europa League safety net in contrast to the old format.

Teams were allocated into either Pots 1, 2, 3 or 4 for the league-phase draw based on their UEFA coefficient, and all clubs will face two teams from each pot, one at home and one away.

For the first stage, teams who compete in the same domestic league have been kept apart, and clubs also cannot face more than two sides from a different member association, meaning that Arsenal could not come up against three La Liga outfits, for example.

Should two or more teams find themselves level on points at the end of the league phase, overall goal difference will be the first tie-breaker, after which goals scored, away goals scored, wins or away wins may be needed to separate them.

The league phase runs from September 8 to January 27, and the knockout round commences on February 16, before the final at Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano on June 5.

PSG are the defending champions after getting the better of Arsenal in last year's final, and the Parisians are aiming to become just the second team to compete a Champions League three-peat in the post-1992 era, after Real Madrid's streak of success between 2014 and 2016.

Como, LASK, Sabah and Viking are all making their maiden appearances in the Champions League proper, while Real Betis are back in Europe's premier competition for the first time in 21 years.