UEFA Best Bets: Which Non-Big-Five Teams Could Win a European Competition This Season?

All three of UEFA's flagship competitions have been dominated by clubs from Europe's 'Big Five' nations in recent years. You have to go all the way back to 2004 for the last time a team not from either England, Spain, Germany, Italy, or France won the UEFA Champions League, while such a side's last triumph in the Europa League was back in 2011, with Portugal's FC Porto triumphing on both occasions.

Olympiacos, meanwhile, flew the Greek flag high in the Conference League, winning as recently as 2024. Now, a number of the continent's teams from outside of the status quo are looking to follow in the Athens club's footsteps. So, with a new European campaign now underway, which teams are best positioned to disrupt the establishment this season? Let's take a look.

FC Porto

Portuguese giants FC Porto unquestionably have the best pedigree when it comes to teams from outside the big five, especially in the modern era. Jose Mourinho led the Dragons to the UEFA Cup in 2003, before shocking the world the following year and winning the UEFA Champions League. In 2011, they claimed the Europa League - formerly known as the UEFA Cup before its rebranding in 2010 - after beating compatriots Braga in Dublin. Fast forward to 2025, and that Emerald Isle success remains their most recent on the continental stage.

This season, Porto find themselves in the Europa League once more, and the bookies consider them genuine contenders to not only make it to the Istanbul final, but also to claim the trophy. They are currently considered 10/1 joint-second-favorites alongside Nottingham Forest, with the 6/1-priced Aston Villa the only team considered more likely to claim the crown. Using a betting calculator such as the one available on the popular Thunderpick site shows just how close the Portuguese outfit is to top billing. The tool shows that while a £10 bet on Villa to win would return £60 in winnings, a bet on Porto would potentially secure £100, representing not too much of a difference in betting terms.

Porto aren't considered Portugal's best team at the moment, with Sporting CP claiming that title. Even so, they still possess the required quality to win the continent's second biggest prize. Goalkeeper and captain Diogo Costa is currently the Portuguese number one and one of the finest keepers in Europe, while prolific striker Samu Aghehowa and teenage attacking midfielder Rodrigo Mora are also highly rated. Will they be enough to see them to the title? We're about to find out.

Fenerbahce

Turkish giants Fenerbahce find themselves in a similar boat to Porto. They aren't close to being the best team in their native Turkey, with Galatasaray storming clear over the last couple of years. However, they head into the Europa League highly motivated this season, as the final will be held at the home of their archrivals, Besiktas.

Over the years, we have seen teams be spurred to glory by the prospect of lifting a trophy in the home of their enemies. Olympiacos thrived when they reached the 2024 Conference League final hosted at the home of rivals AEK Athens. In 2018, Marseille managed to reach the Europa League final, hosted in the home of compatriots and rivals Lyon. However, sometimes the lure of getting one over on the enemy can have a detrimental effect.

In 2010, the UEFA Champions League final was hosted at the Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid. Their archrivals, Barcelona, were determined to reach the final and lift the trophy on enemy territory, something that then Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho called an obsession. In his true Mourinho style, he dumped out the Blaugrana in the semifinals, with the obsession imploding on the grandest stage.

Now, the mantra falls on Fenerbahce, the team that just relieved the aforementioned Special One of his duties as manager. Domenico Tedesco has headed to Istanbul to take over in Mourinho's absence, and the Italian-German boss inherits a stacked squad containing the likes of Ederson, Marco Asensio, and Kerem Aktürkoğlu. With those in the starting line-up and with additional motivation on their side, it would take a brave punter to bet against the Yellow Canaries bringing a European trophy back to Turkey for the first time since the turn of the millennium.

Shakhtar Donetsk

Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk are European stalwarts. They won the UEFA Cup back in 2009 and were competing in the Champions League last season for the eighth straight season. This year, however, they find themselves relegated to the Conference League following a UEL qualifying exit at the hands of Panathinaikos, but the demotion means that Shakhtar has a genuine opportunity to win European silverware once more.

The Conference League doesn't have a true heavyweight and favorite this year. Crystal Palace, Fiorentina, Strasbourg, Mainz, and Rayo Vallecano are the representatives from the Big Five countries, and none of them are head and shoulders clear of the rest like Chelsea was last season. That means that the door is ajar for Shakhtar, and the onus is now on them to power their way through.