Four months after Paris Saint-Germain lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy for the first time, Europe’s premier competition is back. The 36-team League Phase will begin with every team in action this week. From the favorites — Barcelona, PSG, and Liverpool — to the long shots — Paphos and Kairat Almaty — Europe’s best will get a chance to prove it on the pitch.
In honor of the tournament’s opening match day, DraftKings is running a promotion in which you get your stake back on Moneyline bets as a bonus bet if the two teams draw at the end of 90 minutes.
To help you get started, I’ll identify my three favorite Moneyline bets from Tuesday’s six-game slate at DraftKings Sportsbook.
First, let’s take a look at the full slate:
Arsenal at Athletic Club Bilbao, 12:45 p.m. ET
Union Saint-Gilloise at PSV Eindhoven, 12:45 p.m. ET
FK Qarabag at Benfica, 3 p.m. ET
Borussia Dortmund at Juventus, 3 p.m. ET
Marseille at Real Madrid, 3 p.m. ET
Villarreal at Tottenham Hotspur, 3 p.m. ET
Arsenal Moneyline (+105)
The Gunners made it to the Champions League semifinals last season after ousting Real Madrid in the quarters, their best performance since 2005/06, when they lost the final to Barcelona. It was another stellar season for Arsenal, which finished second in the Premier League for the third consecutive season, and the Gunners are gearing up for another strong campaign domestically, sitting third after the first three matches. They made one of the most high-profile signings of the summer, luring Swedish striker Viktor Gyökeres away from Sporting. Gyökeres bagged his first Premier League brace in a 5-0 win over Leeds United in Matchweek 2. Arsenal also has one of the strongest defenses in the Premier League, thanks to its center-back partnership of Gabriel and William Saliba and its elite shot-stopper, David Raya.
Athletic Club has also had a strong start to the season, as one of two La Liga teams to win each of its first three matches. None of the opponents Los Leones have faced have been particularly impressive — Sevilla is coming off of just a 17th-place finish in the league, and Real Betis lost one of its best players in American midfielder Johnny Cardoso — but nine points is nine points. Athletic Club looked as if it was going to lose its star player, Nico Williams, during the summer, but his long-rumored transfer to Barcelona fell apart and he signed an extension through 2035. Williams has registered a goal and an assist in three games, and Unai Simón remains one of Spain’s most reliable goalkeepers. Last season, Los Leones allowed just 29 goals, the fewest in La Liga.
Home-field advantage could give Athletic Club an edge — it’s won both of its home clashes this season and lost just twice at Estadio de San Mamés in 2024-25 — but Arsenal had a league-low two defeats on the road in the 2024-25 Premier League season. It should be a low-scoring game, given both sides’ formidable defenses, but the Gunners have just a little bit too much talent up front, between Gyökeres and fellow summer signing Noni Madueke, who bagged seven goals for Chelsea.
PSV Eindhoven Moneyline (-125)
Eindhoven put together an impressive 2024-25 Eredivisie campaign, going 24-4-5 to pip Ajax to the title by a point. Most noteworthy was Boeren’s attack; they scored 103 goals, 27 more than any other team in the Netherlands, despite no player scoring more than 14 on his own. Two of the players most responsible for Eindhoven’s impressive domestic campaign and run to the Champions League Round of 16, Malik Tillman (14 goal contributions) and Luuk de Jong (22) now play for other clubs, but other top players, including Ismail Saibari (22), Guus Til (21), and Ivan Perišić (18) are still on the roster. Boeren have won three of their first four matches to open the 2025-26 season, with the ageless Perišić already bagging four goal contributions.
Eindhoven may have been throttled by Arsenal in the Round of 16 last year, but Saint-Gilloise is no Arsenal. Les Unionistes are making their Champions League debut after winning the Belgian Pro League, but they finished just third in the regular season before catching fire in the championship round. Plus, Saint-Gilloise’s leading scorer, Franjo Ivanović, left for Benfica after the season ended. So far in 2025-26, Kevin Rodríguez and Raul Florucz have picked up Ivanović’s slack as Les Unionistes sit atop the table after six games, and they have both the strongest attack and the strongest defense in Belgium. Regardless, the Pro League is generally considered a weaker league than the Eredivisie and USG’s squad market value is barely one-fourth PSV’s; I’ll believe in this season’s version of Les Unionistes when they beat the traditional Belgian powerhouses, Genk and Club Brugge.
Eindhoven’s formidable attack will present a challenge for a Saint-Gilloise team that lost captain Anthony Moris to El-Khaleej. The Luxembourgish shot-stopper saved an impressive 75.8% of the shots on target he faced last season, good for the seventh-best percentage in the Pro League. Les Unionists have turned to Kjell Scherpen in each of their last three games, and while Scherpen has not allowed a goal, he saved just 67.9% of the shots on target he faced last season in the Austrian Bundesliga, a lower-quality competition.
Villarreal Moneyline (+290)
This one would be a huge upset, but Tottenham just doesn’t seem worthy of its status as a clear favorite. Spurs suffered through their worst domestic season ever in 2024-25, finishing 17th in the Premier League and only qualifying for the Champions League by virtue of winning the Europa League. The captain who brought them to that point, Son Heung-min, moved to the MLS, and another one of that team’s best players, James Maddison, suffered a torn ACL and will miss most of the season. Tottenham does look more comfortable under new manager Thomas Frank and nearly upset PSG in the Super Cup, but a 2-0 win over Manchester City in Matchweek 2 isn’t enough for me to be fully convinced. It’ll take time for Spurs to integrate new arrivals Xavi Simons and Randal Kolo Muani into the team.
Villarreal is a quality squad. It finished fifth in La Liga last season, tying on points with Athletic Club and finishing with a better goal differential than Los Leones. 32-year-old Ayoze Pérez, who also has nine seasons of Premier League experience under his belt with Newcastle and Leicester City, turned in the finest season of his career. The Yellow Submarine underwent a lot of change in the offseason, losing star attacking midfielder Alex Baena to Atlético Madrid, but they’ve managed to take seven points from their first three La Liga games thanks to a pair of African stars, Cameroonian Karl Etta and Ivorian attacking midfielder Nicolas Pépé. Canadian Tajon Buchanan has also made the most of his newfound responsibility, tying for the La Liga lead with three goals. Luiz Lúcio Reis Júnior has allowed just one goal on eight shot attempts, and Pérez is back healthy now.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium just hasn’t proven to be the impenetrable fortress that it should be. Last season, its inhabitants managed just a 6-3-10 record at the venue, and so far this season, Spurs have beaten pitiful Burnley and dropped a 1-0 decision to Bournemouth in which it was thoroughly outplayed. Villarreal did better on the road last season than even Real Madrid and managed a draw against a solid Celta Vigo side in its road opener this season.
