Five Champions League places for Premier League? How extra team can qualify in 2024
England's hopes of pipping Germany in the race for an extra Champions League spot took a huge hit on Wednesday night, with Arsenal and Manchester City crashing out of the competition.
In the reformatted edition of next season's competition, the two countries with the highest co-efficient will be given an extra group-stage place.
Each win is worth two coefficient points, a draw gets you one, and you get nothing for a defeat. There are also bonus points for getting to certain stages.
Heading into this week's matches, English clubs sat ahead of their German counterparts - but only on countback with the two countries locked on the same coefficient points.
But those hopes of pipping Germany and earning a fifth qualification spot for next season's Champions League are now almost over after Bayern Munich beat Arsenal and Real Madrid knocked out Manchester City. Dortmund also knocked out Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, meaning Germany have moved ahead of England on points.
England will now be relying on a miracle from West Ham and Liverpool on Thursday night, who have to turn around their ties against Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta, to have any hope of catching Germany.
Aston Villa have a 2-1 first-leg lead against Lille in the Europa Conference League but, even if Unai Emery's side win and then win both their semi-final games and the final, it would not be enough for England to overtake Germany without one of West Ham or Liverpool progressing to the semi-finals of the Europa League.
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In fact, Germany could mathematically secure an extra Champions League spot on Thursday if West Ham, Liverpool and Aston Villa lose on Thursday.
The change will see 36 teams competing in the competition in a 'Swiss league' style, allowing for an additional place to be allocated to the two countries whose clubs perform best across all UEFA competitions.
Liverpool's shock 3-0 home defeat by Atalanta means Italy can mathematically secure an extra Champions League spot if Fiorentina win and Atalanta do not lose in their respective second legs next week.
Standard points for CL, EL & ECLWin: 2ptsDraw: 1pt*Points are halved in qualifying roundsBonus pointsChampions LeagueGroup stage participation: 4ptsR16: 5ptsQF,SF & final: 1ptEuropa LeagueGroup winners: 4ptsGroup runners-up: 2ptsR16, QF,SF & final: 1ptEuropa Conference LeagueGroup winners: 2ptsGroup runners-up: 1ptSF & final: 1ptThe number of points awarded each season is divided by the number of teams that participated for that association in that season and rounded to three decimal places.
England has three teams left in Europe with Liverpool and West Ham in the Europa League and Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League.
Germany also have three teams remaining - Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League along with Champions League semi-finalists Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
Champions LeagueEngland: Man City, ArsenalGermany: Bayern Munich, Borussia DortmundEuropa LeagueEngland: Liverpool, West HamGermany: Bayer LeverkusenItaly: AC Milan, Atalanta, RomaEuropa Conference League England: Aston VillaItaly: Fiorentina
There are four Italian teams left standing with Atalanta (EL), AC Milan (EL), Roma (EL) and Fiorentina (ECL).
Regarding the final bullet point, those two associations will earn one place for the club best ranked in the domestic league behind the Champions League positions.
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For example, based on the collective performance of their clubs last season, England and Italy would have both had an additional spot in the Champions League, meaning Liverpool and Atalanta - both fifth in their respective leagues - would have entered the competition.
Qualification for the two other UEFA competitions, the Europa League and Europa Conference League, will follow the same protocols as in previous years, albeit if the fifth spot qualifies for the Champions League, the Europa League spot will go to the team finishing sixth.
Similar format changes will also be applied to the Europa League (eight matches in the league stage) and Europa Conference League (six matches in the league stage) and both will also include 36 teams in the league phase.
Yes, it does - provided the domestic cups are won by those finishing inside the top seven as seen last season, with Manchester United winning the Carabao Cup and Manchester City winning the FA Cup.
Based on last season, eighth-placed Tottenham would have qualified for the Europa Conference League and Aston Villa would have been promoted to the Europa League.
Given the Champions League will almost double in size - from a total of 125 games to 225 - at least four additional matchdays will be required to fit in the extra games. This will inevitably cause issues for domestic leagues, with fewer dates to fit in all their games.
Taking the total number of teams from 32 to 36 in the Champions League, the biggest change will see a transformation from the traditional group stage to a single league phase including all participating teams.
Every club will now be guaranteed a minimum of eight league-stage games against eight different opponents (four home games, four away) rather than the previous six matches against three teams, played on a home-and-away basis.
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout stage, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition.
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Previously in 2005, when Liverpool won the Champions League but finished outside the top four, the Premier League was granted five potential Champions League berths, with the caveat of having to go through qualifiers.
During the 2015/16 season, Spain became the first association to have five teams in the Champions League group stage after Sevilla lifted the Europa League, despite finishing outside the top four in LaLiga the previous campaign, while Valencia came through the play-off round.
Remarkably, there is even a chance - albeit an extremely unlikely one - of there being as many as seven Premier League clubs in the Champions League next season based on the change in rules.
That would require both the Champions League and Europa League winners to be from the Premier League and both teams finishing outside the top five in the top flight.
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