LATEST UEFA STANDINGS: ENGLAND’S HOPES OF FIFTH CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PLACE ALL BUT OVER

There will be 36 rather than 32 teams in next season’s rejigged/wrecked Champions League, and two of those extra places will be awarded to the leagues who have been deemed to have performed best in Europe this season.

Italy are now certain of a top-two finish after an entirely satisfactory set of quarter-final results for their Thursday night crew, while Germany would need a disastrous run of semi-final results to give England or France a glimmer of hope. Spain are now out of contention.

The system for working out the co-efficient rating that will decide which league comes out on top is (relatively) simple.

At this stage, we don’t need to worry ourselves about the assorted bonus points for being in the Champions League group stage or topping a Europa League group. That’s all behind us; what matters now is this. Every individual match win is worth two points, whether that’s in the Champions League, Europa League or Conference, and every draw is worth one point.

There is also at this stage an extra bonus point available for reaching the next round of any competition. Champions League and Europa League carry bonus points for reaching quarter-finals, semis and finals, while those bonus points also kick in at the Conference level for teams who reach the semis and final.

So if you qualify for, say, the Champions League quarter-final by winning both legs of your last-16 clash, you collect five points for your country’s tally: two for each win and a bonus point for reaching the next stage. If you get through with a win and a defeat it’s three points (two for a win, plus the bonus point). And so on.

What that means is that from the quarter-finals onwards there are the same number of remaining points available for any team regardless of which competition they’re in, meaning countries with several teams in Thursday night action are in a potentially advantageous position. It certainly pays to at least have a spread of teams across the three competitions to maximise point-scoring opportunities.

The total number of points accrued by all teams from a particular league are then divided by the total number of teams from that league who began the season in European competition to obtain an average rating that determines the all-important standings.

So taking leaders Italy as an example, their teams have between them amassed 136 points across their European campaigns. They started the season with seven teams in Europe, so 136 divided by seven gives their current average co-efficient of 19.429pts.

This therefore means individual match wins are worth more to the score for a country that had fewer teams involved to begin with; a win for any French side is worth 0.333pts to the final tally because it is two points divided by the six teams they had in contention when the season began, while for England or Spain a two-point win is worth only 0.250pts to the total after it has been divided by eight.

As things currently stand the two teams to benefit from the new system would be Roma (fifth in Serie A) and Borussia Dortmund (fifth in the Bundesliga) but plenty of other teams will be keeping a keen eye on how this all shakes out.

 

1) Italy – 19.429pts

Home and hosed after losing only one team in the quarter-finals, and that unavoidably after Roma were paired with Milan. England and France can no longer catch them.

Total points: 136 Total teams: Seven

Teams still active: Three

Semi-finalists: Roma (UEL, v Bayer Leverkusen), Atalanta (UEL, v Marseille), Fiorentina (UECL, v Club Brugge)

Eliminated: Milan, Lazio, Napoli, Inter

 

2) Germany – 17.929pts

Dortmund and Bayern reaching the Champions League semi-finals has strengthened Germany’s hand significantly, especially with an Eric Dier-inspired Bayern’s progress coming at the expense of Arsenal.

Germany didn’t even really need Leverkusen’s late equaliser on the night against West Ham in the UEL, but they are currently physically incapable of losing association football matches and every point helps.

Total points: 125.5 Total teams: Seven

Teams still active: Three

Semi-finalists: Borussia Dortmund (UCL, v PSG), Bayern Munich (UCL, v Real Madrid), Bayer Leverkusen (UEL, v Roma)

Eliminated: Union Berlin, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt, Freiburg

 

3) England – 17.375pts

That’s just about that. Liverpool and West Ham did chuck three more points into the pot on their way out, but England needed more after seeing Arsenal and Manchester City crash out of the Champions League on Wednesday night. Sole survivors Villa’s qualification for the Conference semi-finals was suitably thrilling, but added only one further point to the pot after defeat on the night.

To have any chance, England now need Villa to win the Conference – and do so by winning both legs of the semi-final – and hope Germany’s semi-finals in the Champions League and Europa League go as badly as England’s quarter-finals in those competitions. The highest coefficient England can now muster is 18.250 – even if Villa pull that off, Germany would need just a win and a draw across six semi-final matches for their teams to end England’s hopes.

Total points: 139 Total teams: Eight

Teams still active: One

Semi-finalists: Aston Villa (UECL, v Olympiacos)

Eliminated: Liverpool, West Ham, Arsenal, Manchester City, Brighton, Manchester United, Newcastle

 

4) France – 16.083pts

Lille pocketed two points for a win on the night against Villa, but their penalty heartbreak at the hands and housery of Emi Martinez means France are realistically out of it now despite a pair of semi-finalists still standing. But PSG and Marseille both winning their respective trophies could still be enough if Germany suffer a total wipeout in the semi-finals.

Total points: 96.5 Total teams: Six

Teams still active: Two

Semi-finalists: Paris St-Germain (UCL, v Borussia Dortmund), Marseille (UEL, v Atalanta)

Eliminated: Lille, Lens, Rennes, Toulouse

 

4) Spain – 15.313pts

No way back now for Spain after Atletico Madrid and Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League.

Total points: 122.5 Total teams: Eight

Teams still active: One

Semi-finalists: Real Madrid (UCL, v Bayern Munich)

Eliminated: Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Osasuna, Sevilla, Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Villarreal

2024-03-08T09:31:44Z dg43tfdfdgfd