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

Market value rankings 

The first 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 Kylian Mbappé broke records for Real Madrid and Erling Haaland became the quickest player to reach 50 goals in the competition, some of the continent's biggest clubs locked horns to showcase what they could bring to the European stage this summer. However, not everything went to plan for the biggest and most valuable squads in Europe. 

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 one matchday, 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, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich and reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain all came out of this week’s action with good scores, following impressive wins against good opponents. But the more interesting stories can be found in the less valuable squads that picked up big results. 

A good example of this is Kazakhstan side Qarabağ, who made a 7000 kilometre trip to Portugal to take on Benfica and came away with a famous 3-2 win. Only one club in the entire competition have a squad market value lower than Qarabağ’s, so their win in Portugal is certainly deserving of their +25 score - which is calculated by taking their squad market value rank (35th) away from their position on the group table (17th). Just about them are Club Brugge who picked up an impressive 4-1 win over Ligue 1 giants Monaco, despite their squad market value of €170.5m being the ninth lowest in the competition. However, the club that outperformed all others in the Champions League this week were Union Saint-Gilloise, who beat Dutch giants PSV 3-1 and sit fifth in the group table despite having the 21st most valuable squad in the competition. 

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. Newcastle took fourth spot with a score of -14, due to their squad market value being the 11th highest in the competition but a defeat to Barcelona left them sitting 25th in the table. Similarly, Napoli (14th most valuable squad, 30th in the table) and Atalanta (15th most valuable squad, 36th in the table) sit near the top of the table. But no club underperformed after matchday one more than Chelsea, who can boast a squad market value that is bested by only five clubs in the competition but due to their defeat to Bayern Munich sit 28th in the table. 

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.