Champions League Bingo Cards

Champions League 2025 – 2026

It’s back! Tuesday, Wednesday and sometimes even Thursday nights are once again awash with Europe’s elite football clubs battling it out for the honour of being football’s European Champions for the year. Oh and not forgetting that everyone becomes an opera soprano trying to sing along to the official anthem before the games kicks off. Well we are here to help so for starters the chorus roughly translates to “The champions” “The best” “The best teams.” So now you can sing along with confidence!

• First qualifying round: July 8/9 and 15/16 2025
• Second qualifying round: July 22/23 and 29/30 2025
• Third qualifying round: August 5/6 and 12/13 2025
• Play-offs: August 19/20 and 26/27 2025

In the qualifying rounds, teams from smaller nations which include clubs from Scotland, Wales and N Ireland will be competing for a place in the league stage, which kicks off on the 16th September 2025.

So it’s time to get your bingo cards prepared and ready for European football’s supreme club competition. But before you do we are here to explain it all in more detail.

Champions League – The Format

The new format was introduced last season and was initially met with a mixed response, with clubs and players having to endure more games in an already congested fixture list. From a fan’s perspective, we get to see more games.

However, the eventual winner placed 15th in the league stages and the team that came 1st were knocked out in the round of 16. (Liverpool) – making a slight mockery of the group stages. To counter this, from this season on if you finish in the top 8 in the league stage you will be guaranteed home advantage in the 2nd leg of the knockout phase for as long as you stay in the tournament. With the already added advantage of not playing 2 further games, the top eight is even more appealing.

The league stages involve 36 participants with each team playing 8 games. Four at home and four away which are/were drawn using ranking plus the rule that no participant from the same country can play each other.

Using a league format, the teams that finish in the top eight will inevitably qualify for the knockout stage round of 16.

The teams that finish 9th to 24th will have to play in an extra round (which means 2 more games home and away) with the winners of these games added to the round of 16.

The teams that finish in the bottom twelve, 25th to 36th it was the taking part that counts. Better luck next year, well that’s if they qualify!

From the round of 16 onwards we head into the knock out phases with two games played at home and away all the way to the final which takes place on the 30th May 2026 in Budapest Hungary.

There will be highs, lows, surprises and shocks along the way. Oh the drama!

What Happened Last Season?

The 2024/25 Champions League was won by Paris Saint-Germaine (PSG) for the first time which was a refreshing change. They are only the 2nd French side ever to win this trophy in all its different formats with Marseille winning in 1992/93. PSG had a great domestic season too, winning a quadruple of trophies. Not only did they win this competition, but they won it with style beating Inter Milan 5-0, which is the biggest ever score in the final to date.

Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund) and Raphinha (Barcelona) ended up joint top goal scorers with 13 goals each. With the now domestic trophy in hand Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) grabbing 11 goals.

The home nation’s performance in this competition was a little sketchy. Firstly Celtic finished 21st in the league stage and were knocked out by Bayern Munich in the extra round of games. Man City exited the competition at the same stage finishing 22 in the league stage and were then soundly beaten by Real Madrid. Liverpool who topped the league phase were knocked out on penalties by PSG. Aston Villa had a great run; they finished 8th in the league stages and were knocked out by (you guessed it) PSG in the quarter-finals. Arsenal performed the best out of all the British teams involved, finishing 3rd in the league stages where they beat PSG, with them knocking out the then Champions Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. Those Declan Rice goals were world class!  Arsenal were knocked out in the semi-finals by (there is a trend here) PSG.

There were 618 goals scored throughout the competition with a 3.27 goal per game average. A whopping 43 were scored by Barcelona, with the most goals coming in the last 30 mins of games. Keep that in mind if you like a flutter on this competition!

How Will This Season Play Out?

This season’s Champions League is as competitive as ever and there are at least 8-10 teams that could win it. British clubs are represented by Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham (who qualified by winning the Europa League after coming a dismal 17th in the Premier League).

Celtic and Rangers have to go through the qualifying rounds, alongside teams from Wales and N Ireland.

So who’s gonna win it? The way PSG dominated last season it is hard to see past them at the moment. Arsenal will want to go a stage further and will be gunners blazing (pardon the pun) to win this tournament for the first time. Liverpool, Real Madrid, Man City and Bayern Munich will definitely be in the mix after having slightly disappointing campaigns last season. Napoli, Barcelona and Inter are all ones to watch also. It will also be interesting to see how Tottenham and Newcastle get on.

One thing is certain: there will be goals, drama, tears, VAR and referees that could do with a trip to the optician. With this competition extremely hard to predict, how will you fare? We’ve come up with the Champions League Bingo cards for the 2025/26 season. So download a set now and let the games begin!