Co-efficient corner: One week in to the knockouts

It’s like it’s never been away, isn’t it? After a two-month absence, the UEFA tournaments came roaring back to life. We’re now halfway through the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, and we’ve completed the first leg of the knockout play-off round in the Europa League and Conference League — let’s look at where we stand.

The Top 8: the race for Pot 1 in the Champions League

There was very little movement here: Manchester City are still the highest ranked side after their win at Copenhagen, with 143 points, but they extend their lead over Bayern Munich whose loss at Lazio keeps them on 136 points. Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain each picked up two extra points with wins against Leipzig and Real Sociedad: Real Madrid are now on 125 points and PSG on 110. Liverpool don’t play until March, so remain on 107; Inter’s match against Atlético Madrid isn’t until this Tuesday, so they’re still on 99; Leipzig’s defeat keeps them on 96 along with Chelsea. Manchester United remain in 9th place on 92 and AS Roma in 10th on 91.

The European Performance Spots

I said last week that the plethora of German teams playing this week — compared to just one team from England — gave them a chance to extend their lead and consolidate their place in the Top 2 along with Italy. While Germany did extend their lead to 0.054 points, that’s a lot less than it could have been: Man City’s win saw England take the maximum 0.25 points available for the English co-efficient, but there were four German teams playing, offering them 1.143 points. With Bayern and Leipzig both losing, and Freiburg and Frankfurt only drawing at Lens and Union Saint-Gilloise respectively, they could only pick up 0.286 points.

This week, there will be three German teams playing: Freiburg and Frankfurt go again on Thursday — this time at home — and the only English involvement will be Arsenal, who visit Porto. The German teams will hope for better before four English teams enter the Last 16 of the Europa and Conference Leagues.

Scotland’s position in the rankings

This week, all eyes were on Galatasaray v Sparta Prague: a 3–2 win for Gala saw them increase the Turkish co-efficient by 0.25 points, cementing the possibility that from 2025–26, the Scottish Premiership Runners-up will have to start their Champions League qualifying campaign in the Second Qualifying Round instead of the Third. However, Sparta’s defeat stops Czechia closing the gap on Scotland, protecting the Premiership Champions’ automatic League Stage place for now.

However, even if Sparta lose at home this week, there will be two Czech teams in the Last 16, compared to just one Scottish team. Rangers need a good run in the Europa League to protect that lead.

This week’s fixtures

The first leg of the Champions League will conclude: Inter host Atlético Madrid and PSV host Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, while Wednesday sees Porto play Arsenal and Napoli play Barcelona.

And it’s the second leg of the play-offs in the Europa and Conference Leagues, so more points for the Country Co-efficients, and a bonus point is up for grabs for the winners of the Europa League ties.

Finally, as these are the first games since the qualifiers that could go to extra time and penalties, a reminder of what happens for co-efficient purposes: if a game finishes in 90 minutes, then obviously, that result counts for the co-efficient. If it goes to Extra Time, then the result after 120 minutes counts. Penalties obviously decide the winner of the tie if required, but they don’t count towards a co-efficent.

Let’s take a couple of examples: Lens and Freiburg drew in the first leg. If the second leg is level at 90 minutes, then the game continues for another half hour. If either side score an extra time winner, they get the two points added to the calculation of their country co-efficient (and would get the points added to the club co-efficient if this were a later round). If it goes to penalties, the points are shared regardless of the outcome.

Olympiacos v Ferencváros finished 1–0 for the home team: if the Hungarian side with the second leg by one goal 90 minutes, it goes to Extra Time as the tie will be level. At that stage, one of four things can happen: Olympiacos turn the match around completely, in which case they count as the winner of the match despite having been behind after 90 minutes. Or Olympiakos equalise, in which case they go through as winner of the tie, and the game is recorded as a draw for the co-efficient. If Ferencváros hold on to their one-goal advantage in the game, they’re recorded as the winner, and a penalty shootout will settle the tie. If they score again, they win the tie and the match.

Hopefully we won’t need to work any of that out!