Known as the best club soccer competition in the world, Champions League features some of the most elite clubs on the planet. It takes more than talent to win it, though — you also need luck and heart. That’s why the prestigious tournament has only been won by 15 teams.
During the modern era of the competition, Real Madrid dominated with a record 15 titles, followed by AC Milan and Ajax. Only a handful of other clubs have managed to capture the trophy at least twice, including Liverpool (England), Bayern Munich (Germany), Barcelona (Spain) and Manchester United (England).
With the start of the 2024-25 season, UEFA changed the format of the competition to abandon the group stage and instead introduce an expanded league phase. In this version, each team plays eight games — four home and four away — against eight different opponents. Teams are ranked in a table based on their UEFA coefficient, and the league phase draw determines and lays out how they will play each other.
From the league phase, teams are then paired up for the knockout round, or playoffs. The ties are decided by two legs, just like in the past. Ties are broken by a computerized algorithm, and the team that scores more goals over the course of the two games, or aggregate goals, advances.