Champions League semi-final power rankings: Arsenal, PSG or Bayern top? | OneFootball

The Champions League is down to the final four, and it looks wide open between Atletico Madrid, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and PSG.

There were some thrilling contests in the quarters, with Atletico triumphing over Barcelona, Arsenal edging past Sporting, PSG comfortably beating Liverpool and Bayern eliminating Real Madrid in an instant classic. But who looks best placed to get their hands on the trophy next month?

We’ve ranked the four teams that remain in the Champions League.

4. Atletico Madrid

Atletico find themselves 22(!) points behind Barcelona in La Liga and are even four points off Villarreal, who took one point in the Champions League league phase and ended up second-bottom of the 36-team table.

That tells you that this team aren’t anywhere near the best in Europe. Does that matter? Quite possibly not.

Atleti’s limitations have been exposed over a 38-game campaign. But one game, or a two-legged tie, is a different story. They’ve now knocked La Liga’s champions elect out of two competitions, withstanding spirited fightbacks in both.

The last two times they eliminated Barca from Europe, they reached the final. But this time, mercifully, Real Madrid won’t be standing in their way. Is that an omen that this is finally their year?

They’re the clear outsiders, but that’s exactly where they want to be.

3. Arsenal

We had Mikel Arteta’s Gunners top of our quarter-final power rankings.

It feels a bit harsh to knock them down a couple of spots when they made it past Sporting with a pair of clean sheets – their displays were anything but sparkling, lacking in genuine creativity and threat, but that kind of grit could carry them further.

Of the four teams in the semis, we’re most confident of Arsenal reaching the Budapest final. They swept Atletico aside with a 4-0 victory in the league phase and should – in theory – have too much for them over two legs.

But they outclassed PSG in last season’s league phase, and then what happened in the semis? Could they run out of steam at the crucial moment again?

In their current state, you’d have to make Arsenal the underdogs against either Bayern or PSG, should they make it past Atletico. The Gunners just don’t look like European champions in waiting to us.

Alongside the not especially convincing win over Sporting, it’s one win and three defeats in their last five, including two cup exits and a major wobble in the league.

A two-legged tie against Diego Simeone’s die-for-the-cause Atletico is arguably the last thing they need in the midst of this psychodrama.

The other three sides left in this competition also have the luxury of putting their full focus on Europe and resting players accordingly. Arsenal might just pay the price for not wrapping up the Premier League title when they had the chance.

2. Bayern Munich

A historic third treble is on.

Vincent Kompany’s men weren’t nearly as impressive in the second leg as they were for 70 minutes at the Bernabeu, where they played Madrid off the park, but even then they came from behind three times to win 4-3 in a breathless thriller. And producing big moments is ultimately what this stage of the season is all about.

Bayern’s full-backs are no match for PSG’s, while they could really do with Jamal Musiala getting back to his pre-injury levels, but this is otherwise a serious team with very few flaws.

The outrageous numbers of their front three attest to the best attack in European football. And against Madrid, Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Luis Diaz all demonstrated they won’t go missing when push comes to shove.

1. PSG

We’re giving PSG the edge over Bayern because they’ve been there and done it before. The Bavarians (and Arsenal) looked the more impressive side for the first two-thirds of the 2025-26 campaign.

PSG looked to be suffering a Club World Cup hangover and seriously underwhelmed as they found themselves dumped out of the French Cup by noisy neighbours Paris FC and locked into an unlikely Ligue 1 title battle with relative minnows Lens.

The Champions League is all about peaking at the right moments and that seems to be exactly what PSG are doing – just as they did last season. Liverpool are rubbish, granted, but a pair of 2-0 wins is nothing to be sniffed at.

On the evidence of what they produced in the latter stages last term, including a truly brutal mauling of Inter in the final, we’re backing this horse once again.