Manchester United ranked 10th in UEFA Champions League this season

Manchester United are back in the Champions League, and they’ve been ranked 10th in pre-season power rankings for the 2026/27 UEFA Champions League, a position that reflects cautious optimism about a squad that finished third in the Premier League last season under manager Michael Carrick. A return built on Premier League momentum United’s path back to the Champions League was paved by a third-place finish in the 2025/26 Premier League season under Carrick’s stewardship, ending a painful stretch during which the club missed out on European competition entirely for consecutive seasons. Missing the Champions League for two straight years caused their UEFA five-year club coefficient to plummet from 11th all the way down to 21st. That coefficient determines seeding in the tournament draw and can influence the size of UEFA’s prize money distributions. United have named a 25-man squad for the upcoming tournament. The league phase kicks off on September 8-10, 2026. Tough fixtures define the challenge The 10th-place ranking in ESPN’s pre-Matchday-1 power assessment positions United in the competitive middle tier of the tournament. Their schedule includes home matches against Bayern Munich ...