Co-efficient Corner: Matchday 1, Part 1 – The League Stage gets underway

League Stage football is now underway, in the Champions League at least, with eighteen matches spread over three days. It was an odd affair, and perhaps underwhelming for the larger teams: empty seats in some of the bigger venues, a 0-0 played out between 2023 Finalists Manchester City and Inter, a mismatch of epic proportions between Bayern and Dinamo Zagreb. On the other hand, Celtic came roaring to life at Parkhead, Brest marked their first ever European game with a win, and a 0-0 between Atalanta and Arsenal masked a David Raya masterclass.

But with the big clubs now involved, the Co-efficient Corner can adopt a more familiar structure.

The return of the Top 8

Don’t forget that in this feature, I’m looking at the UEFA Co-efficient Rankings, not the League Table at the end of Matchday 1, which looks very different. And don’t forget that the rankings are based on a rolling five-year period, so points picked up in the 2019-20 season no longer count, so all comparisons are made against where clubs where at the start of the week, not the end of last season: most clubs are down against where they were three months ago.

For example, Bayern Munich finished last season in second place and eight points ahead of Real Madrid, but Bayern’s title win in 2019-20 has been expunged from the record along with what had been an indifferent season for Real, so Real are now second, nine points ahead of Bayern.

With that in mind, Manchester City are top of the rankings: their draw against Inter gives them one extra point, putting them on 130. Real Madrid are second, their win against Stuttgart gives them two points, putting them on 127. Bayern Munich remain third after their tonking of Dinamo Zagreb netted them two points for a total of 116, and Liverpool’s win at Milan gave them an extra two points, putting them on 104. So barring a one-point closing of the gap behind Man City, there’s no movement in the Top 4.

Paris Saint-Germain, however, move into fifth place in the rankings: a late Girona own goal gifted PSG two co-efficient points for a total of 93, allowing them to overtake Roma who are also on 93, but have only picked up three points over the course of this season as opposed to PSG’s eight. Roma will be in the Europa League this week, hosting Athletic Bilbao on Thursday, but the result won’t affect their club co-efficient.

In seventh place is Borussia Dortmund, whose win over Club Bruges gave them two extra points for a total of 87, putting a little extra daylight ahead of Inter Milan in eighth: the point they picked up in their draw with Man City puts them on 83, one ahead of Villarreal in ninth.

A quick reminder for those who missed the draw for the League Stage: Pot 1 in next season’s draw will be comprised of this season’s winners, and the eight teams with the highest co-efficient to qualify for the League Stage. These are the teams which will get first dibs in next season’s draw: by the time the Pot 4 teams are drawn, the only thing they’ll be waiting to find out will be which other teams from Pot 4 they’ll play.

How did this week’s games impact the Country Rankings?

England are currently ranked first: wins for Aston Villa and Liverpool, and draws for Man City and Arsenal meant a total of six points, divided by the seven teams entered in all three UEFA competitions: 0.857 points this week.

It was also an excellent week for France with wins for PSG, Monaco and Brest, and only Lille losing. That’s a total of six points divided by seven clubs, so they match England’s 0.857 points.

Portugal had a good week with wins for both of their Champions League entrants, Benfica and Sporting. That’s four points divided by five teams across the three competitions, for a total of 0.8 points this week.

Germany will probably be rueing that co-efficient points aren’t given for goals seeing as the five teams playing scored 18 goals between them, half of those coming from Bayern. Their win, together with wins for Dortmund and Leverkusen, more than made up for Stuttgart and RB Leipzig’s losses. Six points divided by eight teams who have entered makes 0.75 points.

Italy had a more indifferent week: a win for Juventus, but draws for Atalanta, Bolgona and Inter, as well as Milan’s loss, meant that they picked up five points divided by eight teams in total: 0.625 points.

Spain had a week of contrasting fortunes: Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid both won, but Barcelona and Girona opened their accounts with a loss. That’s four points divided by seven teams overall, for a total of 0.571 points.

Sparta Prague, as the sole Czech representative in this year’s Champions League got a win. Two points divided by five clubs is 0.4 points. The same is true of Celtic, whose win gave Scotland a badly needed 0.4 points: hot on the heels of losing their automatic League Stage spot for next season’s competition, Scotland is now in very real danger of losing its second Champions League spot altogether, meaning the three remaining Scottish teams will have to put a real shift in while can.

Meanwhile, Shakhtar Donetsk’s draw at Bologna will come in handy: one point divided by five clubs for an extra 0.2 points.

Feyenoord and PSV both lost, Salzburg and Sturm Graz both lost, as did Club Bruges, Young Boys, Dinamo Zagreb, Crvena Zvezda and Slovan Bratislava. That means that the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia and Slovakia all finish the week empty-handed.

The European Performance Spots

Don’t forget that the two countries who pick up the highest number of co-efficient points this season gain an extra League Stage spot in the Champions League for their collective efforts, and it’s no surprise that at this early stage, countries with several teams in the qualifiers (not just the Conference League Play-off) are leading the way. Czechia is currently top, with 5.700 points, and Portugal roared into second place with 5.400 points, overtaking Slovakia, who were second before last week’s matches, but now drop to fifth.

This week: the Europa League gets underway – what’s at stake?

This week’s matches have no direct impact on the Club Co-efficient: while the six points clubs pick up for reaching the League Stage of the Champions League are bonus points added on to the final total, the three points clubs secure for reaching this point of the Europa League are a minimum, replaced by the total number of match points picked up once that goes beyond three. So as each match offers two co-efficient points for a win (it’s still three in the league table, remember) and one for a draw, Matchday 1 won’t alter the Club Rankings at all.

However, wins this week will allow clubs to pick up points next week with further wins in Matchday 2: anyone at that point with a 100% record will have gone beyond the three-point minimum, and of course, with the same format being used in the Europa League as in the Champions League, these matches contribute to the final league table, and a club’s final position on that will determine how many bonus points they get at the end of the League Stage.

So while no Club rankings will change this week, Matchday 1 will determine when club’s can start picking up extra points, and shape the final bonus. Besides, results will count towards the country co-efficient in the usual way.

That’s Matchday 1 sorted. Now, on to, errr… Matchday 1…