Champions League tiebreakers explained: What happens if teams finish level on points?
From goal difference to disciplinary points, here’s how UEFA separates teams when the Champions League league phase gets tight.
Matchday 8 of the league phase of the 2025-26 Champions League is upon us, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City among the teams that still have work to do as they try to qualify automatically for the round of 16.
With the new expanded format still unfamiliar to many fans, the final matchday brings plenty of scenarios, calculators and inevitable confusion.
2025-26 Champions League league phase: format and who qualifies
Following the conclusion of Matchday 8, the top eight teams in the league phase will qualify automatically for the first knockout round, which is the round of 16.
The remaining eight places will be decided via the knockout phase playoff round. Teams that finish ninth through 16th will be seeded for the playoffs, while those ranked 17th through 24th will be unseeded.
The bottom 12 teams in the league phase will be eliminated from the competition entirely and, unlike in the previous format, will not drop into the Europa League. European soccer will be over for them until next season at the earliest.
With 36 teams all competing in a single league table and each playing eight matches, it is almost inevitable that several clubs will finish level on points.
What happens if teams finish level on points after Matchday 8?
Because not every team plays each other during the league phase, head-to-head record is not used as a tiebreaker. Instead, UEFA applies a series of statistical criteria.
The first tiebreaker is goal difference (i.e. the difference between goals scored and goals conceded in the eight games).
If teams still cannot be separated, goals scored is next, followed by away goals scored. The fourth tiebreaker is number of wins, with away wins used as the fifth.
These criteria are used to rank teams while the league phase is still ongoing. If clubs remain level before all matches are completed, they are provisionally listed in alphabetical order.
However, in the unlikely event that teams are still tied across all five criteria after the league phase is complete, UEFA applies five additional tiebreakers (nos. 6-10 below).
Full Champions League league phase tiebreaker order
- Superior goal difference in the league phase
- Higher number of goals scored in the league phase
- Higher number of away goals scored in the league phase
- Higher number of wins in the league phase
- Higher number of away wins in the league phase
- Higher number of points obtained collectively by league phase opponents
- Superior collective goal difference of league phase opponents
- Higher number of goals scored collectively by league phase opponents
- Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received by players and team officials in all league phase matches (red card equals three points, yellow card equals one point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match equals three points)
- Higher UEFA club coefficient
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