Co-efficient corner: five games left…
With the Last 16 of all three UEFA competitions now completed, we have only five matchdays left before this season’s tournaments come to a close. Let’s see how things stand…
No movement in the Top 8
Only two teams in the current Top 8 were playing this week so it’s understandable that there’s no change: Man City remain on 146 points, Bayern Munich are on 139, Real Madrid on 127, and PSG remain on 113.
Liverpool consolidated their first leg crushing of Sparta Prague with a 6–1 win in the second leg: that win plus the bonus point for reaching the Europa League Quarter Finals gives them three points, putting them on 112. Inter Milan remain on 101 points after being knocked out of the Champions League by Atlético Madrid on penalties.
RB Leipzig remain on 97 points and Chelsea remain on 96. Chasing them is Roma who lost to Brighton but still progress to the Europa League Quarter Finals on aggregate, picking up a bonus point in the process and moving onto 95 points: Victory in their tie against Milan will see them move up to seventh in the rankings. Man United remain in ninth place on 92 points, and have Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona just three points behind them on 89.
The race for the European Performance Spots
With just three rounds and five matches left, there are only five countries still in contention to take the two extra Champions League places next season, and they’re not a surprise: Italy, Germany, England, France and Spain.
Italy remain top of the rankings for 2024 despite a mixed week: Italian representation in the Champions League was wiped out following defeats for Napoli and Inter, who add no points to the co-efficient; in the Europa League, Roma lost at Brighton but still advance, Atalanta won at Sporting and Milan beat Slavia Prague, while Fiorentina drew with Maccabi Haifa to advance in the Conference League. In total, that means 0.857 points have been added to the Italian co-efficient.
Germany’s week was similar: Borussia Dortmund beat PSV in the Champions League and Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to knock out Qarabağ in the Europa League, but Freiburg were Hammered at West Ham, so while Germany match Italy with 0.857 points, the loss to an English team may prove costly further down the line.
And this was a good week for England: Arsenal beat Porto to advance to the Champions League Quarter Finals; Liverpool and West Ham won their Europa League ties in style; Brighton had too much to do in the second leg to knock Roma out but still managed to get the last word; and Aston Villa knocked out the top-ranked side in the Conference League, Ajax. Those results netted England 1.625 co-efficient points — not a bad return for one week, especially as it reduces the gap behind Germany to just 0.107 points. And there are two England v Germany ties next month: Arsenal v Bayern in the Champions League and Bayer Leverkusen v West Ham in the Europa League.
This was not a good week for France: only two French teams were playing and their results weren’t great. Marseille lost 3–1 at Villarreal but progress 5–3 on aggregate in the Europa League, netting them a bonus point, while Lille drew 1–1 with Sturm Graz. That equates to a 0.333 gain for the co-efficient.
Spain’s hopes, meanwhile, rest entirely on the Champions League as they have no teams in the other two competitions. That said, this wasn’t the worst week: wins for Atlético Madrid, Barcelona and Villarreal netted Spain one point. It’s still highly unlikely that they’ll make the Top 2 though. They certainly can’t come top: Italy are guaranteed 0.714 points in the next round as Milan and Roma are drawn to play each other, and as such, Spain will not catch them, even if Barcelona play Atlético in the Champions League Semi Final, and the winner plays Real in the Final.
Scotland’s involvement ends — are they going to lose their automatic Champions League place too?
The draw was looking good for Scotland: Benfica needed a penalty and an own goal just to draw with Rangers at home, while the two Prague sides were trailing in their ties, with only Viktoria Plzeň level after drawing at Servette. However, Rangers lost 1–0 at Ibrox and were knocked out, picking up no points and ending Scottish involvement in this year’s competition. Viktoria, meanwhile, won on penalties, picking up one co-efficient point for the draw after extra time, and 0.25 points for the Czech co-efficient.
That leaves the Scottish co-efficient on 36.050, and the Czech co-efficient just 0.25 points behind on 35.800. Now, in the event of a tie, countries are then ranked by their performance in the most recent season, and Czechia has racked up 13.250 points to Scotland’s 6.400. So all Viktoria need to do is draw one game against Fiorentina, and they’ll pick up the 0.25 points the Czechs need to take Scotland’s automatic place in the Champions League.
Türkiye remains in ninth place, and Scotland can no longer pick up any points to catch them up, so the Scottish Premiership runners-up will have to play an extra qualifying tie in the 2025–26 campaign.
Moreover, that automatic place looks doomed unless next year’s Scottish entrants have the season of their lives: next season, performances from 2019–20 will no longer count towards the co-efficient and that was a good season for Scottish clubs — Rangers powered through four qualifying rounds and a group stage to reach the Europa League Last 16, while Celtic may have dropped into the Europa League during the qualifiers but still reached the Last 32. Between them, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, the four teams picked up 9.750 points, the seventh best performance in Europe that year. Scottish clubs will have to hope the new format is kind to them, or they’ll plummet down the rankings, and the 2026–27 Access List, without those points.
Now, on that cheery note, time for an international break and the Euro 2024 play-offs…
