The Champions League is back. Thirty-six clubs, 114 matches before the field narrows to 24, and a format that has grown so expansive it sometimes struggles to fill the room it occupies. The hype machine runs hot — Darren Fletcher and Ally McCoist rarely pause for breath — yet for all the noise, familiarity has a way of blunting the edge. When a fixture pairing feels routine rather than electric, you find yourself looking elsewhere for the spark.

This season, the spark is with the newcomers.

Como: Serie A's freshest face brings a familiar one

Italian football's most romantic promotion story of recent years has delivered Como into the Champions League group stage. Managed by Cesc Fàbregas, widely regarded as one of the sharper young coaching minds in the game, the Lake Como club carry genuine intrigue. Their Argentine midfielder Nico Paz is already being talked about as a long-term heir to some very lofty expectations in that position — though the less said about the weight of that particular comparison, the better for a young man still finding his feet at this level.

LASK arrive via Celtic and a remarkable defender

Austria's LASK, from Linz, make their group-stage debut after eliminating Celtic in the play-off round. Their squad includes Miguel Freckleton, a defender whose career has taken in Mangotsfield, Wealdstone, Yeovil, Chesterfield, Swindon and St Mirren before this particular destination. Non-league to Champions League is a journey that still carries genuine romance, regardless of how glossy the competition's branding becomes.

Sabah and the coach with an unusual backstory

Azerbaijan's representation in the competition has previously come through Qarabag, but Sabah are the country's new force. Based in a small municipality beside the Masazir salt lake, they are managed by Valdas Dambrauskas — a Lithuanian coach with a story worth telling. Having reportedly used winnings from a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire appearance on Lithuanian television in 2002 to move to England, Dambrauskas went on to work at Manchester United's soccer schools from 2004. He now returns to Old Trafford on very different terms.

Yaya Touré makes history in Bratislava

Slovan Bratislava are managed by Yaya Touré, who won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2009. More significantly, Touré becomes the first African coach to lead a club in the competition's group stage — a milestone that has taken far too long to arrive, and one that deserves rather more attention than it has so far received.

Bodø/Glimt: still doing it their way

The club from the Arctic Circle are back, and the question remains the same as it has been for several seasons now: how long can a club without a billionaire backer sustain relevance at Europe's top table? For the moment, they continue to provide a compelling answer. Come the knockout rounds in spring, resources will inevitably matter more. But for now, Bodø/Glimt's presence is a reminder that the competition has not entirely closed its doors to clubs operating outside the established financial order.

PSG, meanwhile, are reportedly fielding separate squads for their domestic and European commitments — a detail that tells you most of what you need to know about where football's wealthiest clubs currently sit in relation to any notion of sporting jeopardy. The golden goose is not dead. It is simply on the mantelpiece, accumulating value but generating rather less warmth than it once did.

The juice, as ever, will come in the knockouts. Until then, it is the clubs who have no business being here — and are here anyway — who make the watching worthwhile.

FAQs

Frequently asked

How does the 2026-27 Champions League format work?
The competition uses a Swiss-system league phase involving 36 clubs. All 36 play a set number of matches in the opening phase, after which the field is reduced to 24 teams who progress to the knockout rounds. The league phase involves 114 matches in total before the round of 16.
Who is Yaya Touré managing in the Champions League?
Yaya Touré is the head coach of Slovan Bratislava, the Slovakian club competing in this season's Champions League group stage. He becomes the first African coach to manage a team in the competition's group stage.
Which smaller clubs are in the Champions League this season?
Among the notable smaller or debutant clubs in the 2026-27 Champions League are Como (Italy), LASK from Linz (Austria), Sabah from Azerbaijan, Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) and Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt, who are making a return to the competition.