Strategy
Champions League matchday 1: 11 home wins, 2 draws, 5 away wins
Read this post in: Português
Matchday 1 of the 2026-27 Champions League league phase is complete. Eighteen games across Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 September, all finished.
It leaves one number worth keeping: 11 home wins, 2 draws, 5 away wins. Counted by hand off the eighteen results below, not estimated.
If you filled your card on Monday by picking “home” almost everywhere — which is what most people do in an opening round, having watched exactly zero minutes of it — there were five specific lines that cost you.
The 18 results
Tuesday, 8 September
| Match | Score |
|---|---|
| Club Brugge vs. Aston Villa | 2-3 |
| AEK Athens vs. LASK | 1-0 |
| Lille vs. Real Betis | 2-3 |
| Borussia Dortmund vs. Villarreal | 3-2 |
| FC Porto vs. Manchester City | 0-2 |
| Real Madrid vs. Inter | 2-1 |
Wednesday, 9 September
| Match | Score |
|---|---|
| VfB Stuttgart vs. Viking | 3-1 |
| Barcelona vs. Feyenoord | 5-1 |
| Paris Saint-Germain vs. Slovan Bratislava | 6-1 |
| Liverpool vs. Atlético Madrid | 2-1 |
| Sporting CP vs. Galatasaray | 3-1 |
| Napoli vs. Arsenal | 0-1 |
Thursday, 10 September
| Match | Score |
|---|---|
| PSV Eindhoven vs. Shakhtar Donetsk | 1-1 |
| Fenerbahçe vs. AS Roma | 1-1 |
| Manchester United vs. Sabah | 4-0 |
| Bayern Munich vs. Bodø/Glimt | 5-0 |
| Como vs. RB Leipzig | 4-1 |
| Slavia Prague vs. Lens | 2-3 |
The five away wins are in bold: Aston Villa, Real Betis, Manchester City, Arsenal and Lens.
What the 11-2-5 split actually tells you
Three things, and only one of them is obvious.
First: home advantage held, but not by as much as the card suggests. Eleven of eighteen is 61%. That sounds dominant until you notice how many of those home wins were the seeded club hosting a much smaller one — Barcelona 5-1, PSG 6-1, Bayern 5-0, Manchester United 4-0. Strip out the mismatches and the genuinely even home games were close to a coin flip: Dortmund edged Villarreal 3-2, Real Madrid beat Inter 2-1, Liverpool beat Atlético 2-1. All by one goal.
Second: only two draws in eighteen. That is 11%, well below what a normal league round produces. Opening rounds in the league phase pair unequal teams by design, and unequal teams produce fewer draws. If your pool scores draws the same as anything else, spreading draw picks across matchday 1 was a losing strategy — and it will stay one until the seeding evens out later in the phase.
Third: four of the five away wins came against a home side you would have backed. Porto losing 0-2 to City is not a shock. Brugge 2-3 Villa, Lille 2-3 Betis and Slavia 2-3 Lens are three separate 2-3s — home teams that scored twice and still lost. That is the pattern to remember: in this competition the away side scoring three is not rare, and a two-goal home performance is not a safe pick.
How to use this on matchday 2
The league phase does not return until 13 and 14 October, which is more than a month away. That gap is long enough that most groups forget their own rules, so two things worth settling now while the round is fresh:
- Decide how your pool handles draws before the next round, not after someone loses a card on one. If draws are worth the same as a correct home pick, people will pick them; if they are worth less, nobody will.
- Write down the deadline. A round spread across two days with a month of nothing in front of it is exactly where “I thought it closed Wednesday” arguments come from.
If you are still running the whole thing on a spreadsheet and a group chat, here is how to run a prediction pool with friends without one. For the scoring question specifically — exact score versus simple result — the scoring rules guide covers what each option does to the standings.
Frequently asked questions
How many games are in a Champions League league-phase round?
Eighteen, with all 36 clubs playing once. Matchday 1 ran from Tuesday 8 to Thursday 10 September 2026.
What was the result split on matchday 1?
Eleven home wins, two draws and five away wins. The draws were PSV 1-1 Shakhtar and Fenerbahçe 1-1 Roma.
When is matchday 2?
13 and 14 October 2026.
Does a high home-win rate mean I should always pick home?
Not on its own. Most of matchday 1’s home wins came in heavily mismatched ties. In the even games, results were tight and three home sides scored twice and still lost.
Get your pool ready for October
One round down, seven to go in the league phase. Create your pool at playquini.com, set the scoring and the deadline once, and let the live scoreboard do the counting.