The Analyst

Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland made goalscoring starts to the 2026-27 Champions League campaign on Tuesday. Both will have one eye on the competition’s all-time goals record. The Champions League returned for 2026-27 on Tuesday with some familiar faces doing some familiar things. José Mourinho was back in the big time and guided Real Madrid to victory without having much of the ball. Meanwhile, Manchester City won comfortably at Porto.

Real Madrid beat Inter 2-1 on Matchday 1 of the 2026-27 UEFA Champions League. Some stats suggested it was classic José Mourinho, but he seemed far from happy at full-time. José Mourinho has never needed his team to dominate the ball to win a football match.

We use the Opta Power Rankings to assess the difficulty of each team’s UEFA Women’s Champions League fixtures in the 2026-27 league phase. Following the draw for the league phase of the 2026-27 Women’s Champions League last Friday, 54 fixtures have been set across six matchdays, with the first round of games now less than two weeks away. This year marks the second season in which Europe’s best will go head-to-head in an 18-team league-phase format.

Erling Haaland was the difference as Manchester City got off to a winning start in the Champions League. Relive the game with our Porto vs Man City stats page. Manchester City kicked off their Champions League campaign with a win as Erling Haaland scored twice in a 2-0 defeat of Porto at Estádio do Dragão on Tuesday. Having opened their Premier League campaign with three consecutive wins, Enzo Maresca’s strong start to life in the City top job continued in Portugal.

José Mourinho defeated his former side in a gripping, end-to-end Champions League encounter at the Bernabéu. Look back with our Real Madrid vs Inter stats page. Real Madrid began their 2026-27 Champions League campaign with victory as they defeated Inter 2-1 at the Bernabéu on Tuesday. Kylian Mbappé and Federico Valverde were on target, punishing Inter for sloppy mistakes at the back, although Carlos Augusto‘s riposte set up a nervy finish in the Spanish capital.

Nicolas Jackson’s goal proved decisive in a thrilling early Champions League kick-off. Look back on a thriller with our Club Brugge vs Aston Villa stats page. Aston Villa put their Premier League struggles behind them as they opened their Champions League campaign with an absorbing 3-2 victory over Club Brugge.

With the 2026 Ballon d’Or nominees all revealed, we look at the key stats behind the 30 players who will be in contention for the men’s award on Monday 26 October. The 2025-26 club season wasn’t especially successful for Jude Bellingham, as Real Madrid went trophyless for the first time since 2009-10. But he took centre stage for England as they finished third at the World Cup, making it their best showing at that level since winning it in 1966.

We’ve curated our WSL Opta XI of Matchday 1 based on the performances that stood out most across the opening round of fixtures. The 2026-27 Women’s Super League is up and running, and the opening weekend wasted little time in producing some standout performances.

Martin Ødegaard is getting into more advanced positions and scoring more goals. When he is playing like this, it‘s easy to wonder if anyone can stop Arsenal. As Christos Tzolis cut in from the left flank and drove towards the penalty area, Kai Havertz could see history repeating itself.

With the help of the Opta supercomputer, we’re revealing the predictions for the Week 1 games of the 2026 NFL season. If the NFL season can’t get here soon enough for you, the league is listening. The kickoff to Week 1 is on a Wednesday for the first time since 2012 – and it begins with a strong opening schedule games, including Patriots vs. Seahawks, 49ers vs. Rams, Bills vs. Texans, Packers vs. Vikings, Commanders vs. Eagles and Broncos vs. Chiefs.