Champions League quarter-final power rankings: Barcelona 5th… PSG, Bayern or Arsenal top? | OneFootball

The Champions League is down to the final eight and here’s where the competition really heats up. But which side looks likeliest to lift the trophy come May?

The Round of 16 saw four of six Premier League clubs, including Manchester City and Chelsea, eliminated. The vast majority of the quarter-finalists are historic powerhouses who have made it to this stage plenty of times before.

Here’s how we’ve ranked the eight teams remaining in the Champions League.

8. Sporting

The Portuguese champions’ fairytale-stomping fightback against Bodo/Glimt puts the Estadio Jose Alvalade firmly in the ‘tough place to go’ category. The atmosphere sounded incredible in their impressive 5-0 victory over the Norwegians.

Arsenal know that all too well, having been dumped out of the Europa League by (Ruben Amorim’s!) Sporting back in 2022-23.

But the Gunners swept Sporting aside with a brutal 5-1 victory on their last visit to Lisbon in last season’s league phase, and something similar could be on the cards here. This is a different Arsenal, and we’d be amazed if they fold like Bodo/Glimt, given the gaps in quality, resources and experience.

If Sporting can produce their best football at home in the first leg, they could make a fist of it. But eliminating Arsenal would be an all-timer of an upset, while going all the way would eclipse even Jose Mourinho’s Porto as far as Champions League miracles go.

7. Atletico Madrid

Flashbacks of a decade ago. Diego Simeone’s men reached two finals in three years by dispatching Barcelona in the quarter-finals. And their city rivals are on the other side of the draw – could another Madrid derby final be in the offing?

You never know. Atletico recently beat Barca over two legs, booking their place in the Copa del Rey final after a superb 4-0 victory on home soil before (just about) stopping a full remontada in the second leg.

But we also look at their unconvincing league phase results – losses to Liverpool, Arsenal and even Bodo/Glimt – before their downright dodgy away displays against relative minnows Club Brugge and relegation-battling Tottenham, and we’re not so sure.

Throw out your long-held preconceptions about Simeone’s Atleti.  This is no longer a horrible, grizzled set of b*stards (even capable of?) grinding out clean sheets and narrow wins.

A proper Jekyll & Hyde team home and away, a big performance in the second leg at the Metropolitano will be imperative. And that’s before we consider (surely) Arsenal in the semis.

Atletico do have the considerable advantage of being able to put all their eggs in this basket, at least. They’re out of the La Liga title race but have a top-four finish sewn up. Full steam ahead to Budapest.

6. Liverpool

There’s very Liverpool about Arne Slot’s side that look like European champions in waiting to us. Did you see them against Spurs?

But there is a precedent for rubbish-looking teams somehow looking good when all is said and done. Go back to this stage of the season and look at Liverpool in 2005. Chelsea in 2012 and 2021. And basically every Madrid side who have got their hands on the trophy.

The Reds have been largely rubbish in big games this season, but taking four points and two clean sheets from Arsenal shows the pedigree of Virgil van Dijk et al might still count for something. And they eventually made short work of Galatasaray.

We’d have given them a puncher’s chance on the other side of the draw, but beating PSG, and then Bayern or Madrid, and then winning a final? That would be a spectacular turnaround.

5. Barcelona

In all honesty, Barcelona were second-best for three quarters of the tie against Newcastle. Certainly lucky to escape St. James’ with a draw, while not especially impressive before the break at the Camp Nou.

That second half, though? Newcastle lost their heads and completely collapsed, sure, but the likes of Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Pedri showed how immensely devastating they can be if given time and space.

We absolutely love watching this team when they’re in full flow. Last season’s run to the semis was joyful and on paper they should do it again, with just too much for Atletico.

But Arsenal do Newcastle’s physical game considerably better, and we just envisage their robust approach being kryptonite for the technical tiki-taka game favoured by the lads out of La Masia.

4. Real Madrid

Could we be on for a classic Real Madrid Champions League campaign? With players like Federico Valverde, Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe, you can never write them off.

The nature of their victory over Manchester City certainly suggested as much. They were seldom dominant against Pep Guardiola’s men, but that mattered little when they timed their moments so lethally. The hallmark of so many Madrid sides who have lifted the trophy in years gone by.

The thing is, we’d have said the same last season. They beat City in the play-off round before a typical heartbreaker penalty shootout win over Atletico. Name on the trophy… Until it wasn’t.

Ultimately, Madrid look some way off the three teams at the top of this list, and – as with last season’s elimination to Arsenal – we have to believe that means something. Forget the omens and hoodoos.

3. Bayern Munich

Ten goals over two legs against Atalanta? Gulp.

Bayern look on another level right now. Easily their best side since Hansi Flick’s treble-winners of 2019-20. Harry Kane, Luis Diaz and Michael Olise are producing prime Messi-Neymar-Suarez numbers.

The only question is whether it’s all been a bit too easy for them. They’ll soon have the chance to prove themselves, with Madrid up next and then either PSG or Liverpool in the semis.

Like Atletico, Bayern are also in the cushy position of being able to put their full focus on this competition.

Having yet another Bundesliga title wrapped up so early could give them an advantage over their elite-level competitors, who all still have domestic matters to expend energy on.

2. PSG

The past eight months have felt like one long hangover to the Club World Cup final loss to Chelsea.

Elimination to noisy neighbours Paris FC in the French Cup. Somehow locked in a Ligue 1 title race with Lens. Failing to make the top eight in the league phase after failing to beat Sporting, Athletic Bilbao and Newcastle. The Parisiens have looked a shadow of the side that won last season’s treble.

Getting their revenge on Chelsea with an 8-2 aggregate mauling (far more emphatic than the three Premier League sides they faced last season) might just be the glass of Berocca and greasy sandwich they needed to get over said hangover and start to feel themselves again.

PSG have proven themselves the best team in Europe. And they might just be peaking at the perfect time again. Be afraid, Liverpool.

1. Arsenal

We’d have swapped Arsenal and Bayern around here had they been put on each other’s sides of the bracket. And it was a 50/50 chance.

Call it cosmic justice for the Gunners beating Bayern in the league phase, topping the table with an imperious 100% record. Having all the second legs at home another welcome reward for their hard work in the first half of the campaign.

While Bayern have Real Madrid and PSG or Liverpool to contend with, Arsenal have a relative gimme in Sporting before either Atletico (who they’ve already convincingly beaten 4-0 this season) or Barcelona (who, in theory, they should be well-equipped to take apart).

Everything is coming up Arsenal. From the draw opening up to their recent form; their nous in grinding out narrow wins, to the emergence of Max Dowman, to Eberechi Eze flourishing like a spring flower.

It’d be a coin flip against whichever top side from the other side of the bracket, but Arsenal really ought to be making it all the way to Budapest. You can’t say that for any other team.