Soccer Power Rankings: The top 20 teams in Europe this season

On the first Tuesday of every month during the 2024-25 season, we debate which clubs are among Europe's elite in our Soccer Power Rankings. In the last edition of the campaign, we're delivering our final verdict on the 20 best teams across Europe.

ARS | ATA | ATM | BAR | BVB | CHE | CRY | FCB | INT | LEV | LIV | MCI | NAP | NEW | PSG | PSV | RMA | ROM | SCP | VIL

1. Paris Saint-Germain 🇫🇷

Previous: 1 ⚖️

Luis Enrique's PSG won the treble on a steady diet of pace and pressing. Their forwards shone brightest down the stretch - scoring first and early in pivotal Champions League matches - while midfielders Joao Neves, Vitinha, and Fabian Ruiz helped dictate the club's relentless tempo. But Luis Enrique deserves the most credit for PSG's European success. He built a team, a real team, around a group of players who responded well to his intense approach.

2. Barcelona 🇪🇸

Previous: 2 ⚖️

Barcelona narrowly missed out on a continental treble of their own and would've made the Champions League final a much more entertaining contest had they held off Inter's last-minute comeback in the semifinals. Hansi Flick's high line was daring but worth the risk as his gung-ho side racked up 174 goals across all competitions - more than any other side in Europe. Pedri's relentless pursuit of the ball, Lamine Yamal's sensational dribbling, Raphinha's scoring outburst, and Robert Lewandowski's reliable presence helped turn Barcelona into a domestic treble winner.

3. Bayern Munich 🇩🇪

Previous: 5 📈

The Champions League didn't go to plan. Bayern Munich were built to win it after a series of shrewd summer signings, but Vincent Kompany's side fell short and were eliminated by eventual runners-up Inter in the quarterfinals. It was a different story in the league, though, as Harry Kane scored a Bundesliga-leading 26 goals to help Bayern Munich reclaim the title with two games to spare.

4. Liverpool 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Previous: 3 📉

The Premier League season couldn't have gone any better for Liverpool. The transition from Jurgen Klopp to Arne Slot was seamless from the start, as Liverpool jumped into first place early on and never looked back. The dominant march to their 20th English title was even enough to mask the pain of their early Champions League exit.

5. Napoli 🇮🇹

Previous: 7 📈

If Lazio hadn't scored a late equalizer against Inter on the penultimate day of the season, the Nerazzurri would've leapfrogged Napoli and likely gone on to win the Serie A title. But Napoli are still deserving champions. With Scott McTominay scoring from midfield, Romelu Lukaku evolving into a reliable playmaker, and head coach Antonio Conte building a solid defensive system, Napoli had all the pieces to claim a second championship in three seasons.

6. Inter Milan 🇮🇹

Previous: 4 📉

The treble was on as recently as April. A high-scoring Champions League semifinal win over Barcelona put Inter into their second final in three years. But injuries and fatigue set in at the worst possible time. Inter's vaunted defense started leaking goals, and they lost three matches in a row for the first time since December 2017. Saturday's 5-0 loss to PSG left them without a trophy. While the record defeat doesn't completely wipe out their accomplishments, it overshadows all the good things Inter did this season.

7. Arsenal 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Previous: 6 📉

Expectations were high heading into the season that Arsenal could deliver a major trophy. Instead, 2024-25 ended the same way as the previous four seasons under Mikel Arteta. Arsenal finally managed to finish ahead of Manchester City in the table but were blindsided by Liverpool's robust title charge. Their failure to win a major trophy was eventually sealed after a disappointing showing in the Champions League semifinals.

8. Real Madrid 🇪🇸

Previous: 8 ⚖️

Ending the season without a trophy wasn't in the script for Real Madrid. With Kylian Mbappe, Madrid were supposed to be unbeatable. The French superstar eventually lived up to the billing after a slow start, setting a new club record for goals in a debut season with 43. But several factors, including a defensive injury crisis, derailed Carlo Ancelotti's last season in charge.

9. Manchester City 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Previous: 11 📈

Manchester City's third trophyless season over the past 15 years was a failure by their standards, but it could've been a lot worse. No team collected fewer Premier League points than City between early November and Boxing Day (five points from nine matches). Their haul from that point onward, however, was only bettered by champions Liverpool. It was a fine recovery.

10. Chelsea 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Previous: N/A 📈

Did Enzo Maresca make sense of the chaos? Or was it nothing more than individual talent that helped Chelsea qualify for the Champions League and win the Conference League? The Todd Boehly era feels like a real-time case study on football management, but we're yet to find out what the thesis is. It feels like the club is constantly on the precipice of success and failure.

11. Roma 🇮🇹

Previous: 10 📉

Roma completed a remarkable midseason turnaround under Claudio Ranieri, winning 16 of their final 22 Serie A matches to finish in fifth place. No one expected them to be in the Champions League conversation after blowing through two coaches in the first half of the season, but Ranieri came out of retirement to restore peace in the club's near-mutinuous ranks. He also got massive performances from goalkeeper Mile Svilar, whose 16 clean sheets helped bring home several one-goal wins.

12. Villarreal 🇪🇸

Previous: N/A 📈

Villarreal's fifth-placed finish in La Liga merely met expectations. They've got the fourth-biggest budget in Spain, had no European commitments during the 2024-25 campaign, and boast the supremely talented Alex Baena in their ranks. Still, Marcelino deserves credit for rebuilding the squad last summer and for leading the team to six successive wins to end the season.

13. Borussia Dortmund 🇩🇪

Previous: 13 ⚖️

Hiring Niko Kovac in late January was a masterstroke. Borussia Dortmund were 11th in the Bundesliga, and Kovac's arrival sparked a run of 10 wins and one draw over 15 games. Only Bayern Munich collected more points over that span. They wound up in fourth place, and Champions League qualification meant the club won't need to sell some of its best players.

14. Sporting CP 🇵🇹

Previous: 14 ⚖️

Sporting CP kept Benfica at bay to win back-to-back titles in Portugal. The team wobbled a little after Ruben Amorim departed last November, but Rui Borges is yet to taste a league defeat since he was appointed on Boxing Day. Viktor Gyokeres' relentless scoring form survived the coaching upheaval, as he notched an unmatched 39 league goals over the European season.

15. Newcastle United 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Previous: 9 📉

It's unfair to say Newcastle stumbled into the Champions League after two defeats and one draw over their final four games. The Magpies were 12th after 15 Premier League matches, one point above Manchester United and level-pegging with Tottenham Hotspur, before almost keeping pace with Liverpool from that point onward. Newcastle also won the League Cup in March.

16. PSV Eindhoven 🇳🇱

Previous: N/A 📈

Ajax choked. That was the dominant narrative, at least. But PSV Eindhoven needed to be perfect after their 2-0 home defeat to Ajax in late March, and they recorded seven straight wins, ensuring they finished one point clear atop the Eredivisie after their rivals' late-season flop. One of the stars of that winning streak was 36-year-old Ivan Perisic with seven goals and two assists.

17. Bayer Leverkusen 🇩🇪

Previous: 12 📉

It's the end of a fruitful yet disappointingly brief era for Bayer Leverkusen. Xabi Alonso is gone, Florian Wirtz will probably follow Jeremie Frimpong out the door, and the club has handed the reins to coach Erik ten Hag after he led a frankly disastrous recruitment drive at Manchester United. Leverkusen also took seven points from the 18 on offer at the end of the Bundesliga season.

18. Crystal Palace 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Previous: 18 ⚖️

The footage of Crystal Palace fans celebrating the first major trophy in the club's 120-year history - an FA Cup triumph against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, no less - was one of the sights of the season. It'll be interesting to see how Oliver Glasner makes his squad bigger for the Europa League while maintaining the Eagles' upward trajectory.

19. Atletico Madrid 🇪🇸

Previous: 17 📉

The eight-game winning run that got Atletico Madrid to the top of the Spanish table in January was the beginning of the end. Diego Simeone's squad was a title contender until that point. But positive results dried up before a brutal three-game stretch in March ended their Champions League and La Liga dreams.

20. Atalanta 🇮🇹

Previous: 16 📉

Atalanta showed no signs of slowing down in December amid an 11-game win streak that included a decisive win over eventual Serie A champions Napoli. However, a deflating winless run immediately followed, and Atalanta scuffled their way to a third-place finish. And now that coach Gian Piero Gasperini is gone, there's an air of uncertainty going into the summer.

Dropped out: Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Aston Villa, Galatasaray

On the cusp: Athletic Bilbao, Marseille, Eintracht Frankfurt