Every Champions League Stadium Ranked From Worst to Best

The Champions League is the biggest tournament in club football. It’s the best teams in the world going head-to-head on the grandest stage. Many extraordinary moments have taken place in the competition over the years, including Liverpool’s miraculous comeback against AC Milan in the 2005 final, Chelsea overcoming the odds against Bayern Munich in 2012 and many, many more.

Any footballer worth their salt wants to compete in the Champions League and the very best players over the past few generations have showcased their talents in the competition. With the biggest clubs and the best players, it’s important to also have the best stadiums – and while some of the grounds that currently host Champions League games sit alongside the most iconic and glorious in the world, others fall a little short.

Ranking Factors

This season, 35 different stadiums are hosting games in the Champions League, and we’ve had a crack at ranking them all from worst to best. To come up with the definitive list, a number of different criteria have been considered and are as follows:

• Capacity
• Historic significance
• Aesthetic appeal
• Atmosphere

10 Emirates Stadium

Arsenal

Considering how beloved Arsenal’s Highbury was, it had to take something special for the club and its fans to be content with leaving the ground – and that’s precisely what they had with the Emirates Stadium. The ground opened in 2006, making it one of the youngest stadiums in the entire Champions League this year, but its state-of-the-art facilities and impressive capacity made it an instant hit with spectators.

Arsenal might not have lifted a Premier League title or achieved any European success since they moved into the Emirates, but they do have one of the best stadiums in the world – so that’s something, at least.

9 Estadio da Luz

Benfica

Just three years before Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium opened, Benfica moved into Estadio da Luz, and they were immediately blessed with the best stadium in Portugal. With a maximum capacity of 64,642, the venue dwarfs every other ground in the Primeira Liga.

While they were eliminated during the group stage of the Champions League last season, they’ll be hoping they can go a little further this time around, showcasing their impressive stadium a little longer in the process. The ground would serve as an inspiration for the Emirates and if that isn’t a testament to its greatness, then nothing is.

8 Wanda Metropolitano

Atletico Madrid

The second-youngest stadium in the entire Champions League this season, the Wanda Metropolitano opened in 2017 and coincided with Atletico Madrid’s rise in La Liga. Having watched Barcelona and Real Madrid compete at the top of the Spanish division for decades, Diego Simeone’s men have given the pair a serious run for their money over the past 10 years, winning the league twice themselves.

Their stature in football has risen significantly, and they now have a stadium to match their reputation. With a capacity of over 70,000, the Wanda Metropolitano possesses one of the best atmospheres in Europe and played host to the 2019 Champions League final – a testament to how special it is.

7 Celtic Park

Celtic

First introduced all the way back in 1892, Celtic Park has become iconic in Scotland and is the oldest and largest ground in the country. The atmosphere inside is unlike anywhere else, especially during the many Old Firm derbies that it’s hosted over the years. With a maximum capacity of 60,411, the arena is almost filled to the brim every single week as the club’s loyal fans pack the stands to watch their team dominate Scottish football.

They haven’t always been as impressive in the Champions League, but the ground is always filled and provides an incredible backdrop for games in Europe’s premier club competition. It’s a daunting task for any team heading to Celtic Park to take on the famous Bhoys.

6 Camp Nou

Barcelona

Barcelona’s historic stadium, Camp Nou once hosted crowds of over 120,000 back in the 1980s, but it was forced to scale down due to safety laws. That hasn’t hurt its legacy as one of the best venues in football, though. Over the years, Camp Nou has bared witness to some of the most beautiful football in the history of the game and the stunning arena was a fitting stage for it.

The ground is one of the best in the world already, but it’s currently under renovation, so it might even manage to climb up these rankings once it’s given a more modern lick of paint and brought up to date with some of the other stadiums on this list.

5 San Siro

AC Milan & Inter

A must-visit for any ground-hopper worth their salt, San Siro is one of the most historic and significant stadiums in world football. Home to both AC Milan and Internazionale, the ground is easily one of the most distinguished and notable in the sport and was built so that every fan in the arena has a great view of what’s unfolding on the pitch.

There were initially plans to demolish the iconic stadium, but any plans to knock it down were brought to a halt after an assessment decided that it held too much cultural interest. If that doesn’t tell you just how iconic the ground was, there won’t be much that will.

4 Anfield

Liverpool

It might not be the biggest stadium in the Champions League, but you’d be hard-pressed to find one with a better and more intimidating atmosphere than Anfield. The Liverpool faithful regularly pack the ground and their chorus of You’ll Never Walk Alone is as iconic as any in the beautiful game.

Liverpool’s owners, the Fenway Sports Group, have spared no expense updating and upgrading Anfield slowly in recent years. The newly-constructed Anfield Road Stand is quite the spectacle and the prospect of hearing it on those famous European nights is enough to get any football fan salivating.

3 Allianz Arena

Bayern Munich

With its incredibly unique design, the Allianz Arena stands out among the rest of the field and is usually near the top of any football fan’s list of venues to visit. With a maximum capacity of over 75,000, every match in the stadium feels like a big deal – and that’s just how Bayern Munich like it. There aren’t many venues that feel better suited to hosting Champions League nights.

Allianz Arena opened back in 2005 and it’s since hosted the Champions League final and was even home to the first match at Euro 2024 this past summer. There’s a reason football has turned to the venue when it comes to hosting matches in some of the biggest tournaments in football.

2 Signal Iduna Park

Borussia Dortmund

Signal Iduna Park (also known as the Westfalenstadion) is one of the greatest sights to behold in football. Even more so when Borussia Dortmund are firing on all cylinders and the atmosphere inside the arena is at a fever pitch. The infamous ‘Yellow Wall’ in the south stand of the ground is one of the most intimidating, but mesmerising, spectacles in the game today – and it’s the perfect backdrop for Champions League football.

The ground has become so iconic that it’s been speculated that there are over 1000 English football fans attending every single Dortmund home game. It’s clearly not just people from the city that have a special relationship with Signal Iduna Park.

1 Santiago Bernabeu

Real Madrid

There’s no stadium in football more iconic than the Santiago Bernabeu. Having spent over £1 billion to renovate the ground, that’s exactly what Real Madrid wanted. Originally opening back in 1947, the arena has been there and seen all of Los Blancos’ success over the years. There’s no club more legendary than Madrid and it’s fitting that they have the best stadium in the world and in the Champions League to match their reputation.

The Bernabeu and Champions League nights just go hand in hand at this point. It’s played host to four Champions League finals, a record tied with the San Siro and only bettered by Wembley. Considering the incredible success that Madrid have had in the tournament and the sheer number of Champions League trophies currently residing in the arena, it’s impossible to rank any ground higher than this one.