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Barcelona tries to regroup after consecutive defeats in Champions League and Spanish league clasico

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Published 26 Oct 2026, 11:50 GMT1 min read

File photograph: An empty football stadium and its pitch. Ben Wiens / Unsplash. Illustrative context, not a photograph of this reported event.

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Barcelona cruised early on in the season, winning with ease both in the Champions League and the Spanish league. But when it faced its biggest tests yet, having to play against European champion Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and old rival Real Madrid in La Liga, the Catalan club faltered. A 4-2 loss at PSG last Tuesday was followed by a 2-1 home defeat against Madrid on Sunday, when Barcelona looked nothing like the team that had been one of the most dominant clubs in Europe so far.

Background: how the league phase works

The Champions League format introduced in 2024/25 puts 36 clubs in a single league table. Each club plays eight different opponents, with four matches at home and four away. A win earns three points and a draw earns one. Because teams face different opponents, a single result does not tell the whole story of a club's position.

The top eight advance directly to the round of 16. Teams finishing ninth to 24th enter a two-legged knockout play-off; those finishing 25th or lower are eliminated. When following a match report, distinguish the result from its effect on qualification: that depends on the wider table and the fixtures still to come.

Format reference: UEFA's explanation of the competition.

Read the original report at Apnews.

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Sources and context

Apnews

Source headline and summary supplied via NewsData.io. First collected by NewsJaws on 2026-10-27. This is an automated news brief, not original NewsJaws reporting. Dates reflect the source publication. Feed delays may apply.