Manchester City and Liverpool are both outside Lothar Matthaus’s top five for the 2026-27 Champions League. Only Arsenal, beaten on penalties by Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s final, made the cut.
The Germany World Cup-winning captain and 1990 Ballon d’Or winner named five clubs as genuine title candidates as the league phase gets under way:
- Arsenal
- Barcelona
- Real Madrid
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Bayern Munich
Real Madrid the one with a question mark
Matthaus placed the caveat squarely at Real Madrid, arguing the squad still needs to knit together and calling the Spanish champions the only doubt inside his top five. The other four, he told 90min, are clear title candidates.
The other English contenders do not vanish from the picture entirely. Manchester City, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid sit one rung below his shortlist, as sides capable of winning the trophy without matching his front-runners.
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Arsenal carry the English case alone
Arsenal begin the campaign as the club with the most obvious unfinished business. Their 1-1 draw with PSG in Budapest on 30 May ended when Gabriel Magalhaes missed their fifth spot-kick, handing Luis Enrique’s side the trophy for a second year running.
They open their league phase away at Napoli on Wednesday. Manchester City are already in action on Tuesday in Porto, and Liverpool host Atletico Madrid the following night, in a straight collision between two of Matthaus’s second-tier picks.
Bayern lead a German push for the knockouts
Bayern Munich’s inclusion is no surprise from a man who spent two spells at the club, but Matthaus went further on the German representatives as a whole. He told feverpitch that Borussia Dortmund should go deeper than they did last season, and set the knockout playoff round as the minimum target for Stuttgart and Leipzig.
Matchday 1 runs from 8 to 10 September, with Real Madrid hosting Inter on Tuesday, PSG at home to Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday and Bayern welcoming Bodo/Glimt on Thursday.
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