Fifth place on the grid is in danger
England overtakes the Bundesliga in the Champions League fight
April 10, 2024, 9:42 a.m
The new, bloated Champions League even attracts fifth-place finishers in Europe’s top leagues. While Italy can plan quite safely with this space, there is great concern in Germany. Because England is overtaking in the rankings.
Germany has fallen behind in the race for the fifth Champions League starting place for the coming season. As a result of the results in the Champions League on Tuesday, England initially pushed Germany into third place in the annual table of the European Football Union (UEFA), which is decisive for the allocation of starting places.
After Bayern Munich’s 2-2 draw in the quarter-final first leg at Arsenal and Manchester City’s 3-3 draw at Real Madrid, both nations are level on points in the rankings (16,500), but England moved up due to a better ranking last season over. Italy leads the table with a big lead.
At the end of the season, the top two nations in the rankings will receive an additional starting place for the coming season in the Champions League, when the premier class is increased from 32 to 36 teams as a result of a comprehensive reform. Every win for a team brings two points for the ranking, a draw one point and advancing to the next round another point.
BVB has to hope for Bundesliga competition
Looking ahead to the rest of the season, England has better prospects with five teams in the three UEFA competitions, Germany currently only has three starters left in Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. BVB will face Atlético Madrid in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League (9 p.m./DAZN and in the ntv.de live ticker)Bayer gets it in the German-English duel in the Europa League on Thursday (9 p.m./RTL and in the ntv.de live ticker) to do with West Ham United. In addition to Arsenal, Man City and West Ham, the remaining English clubs in the competition are Liverpool FC with Jürgen Klopp in the Europa League and Aston Villa in the Conference League.
BVB, currently fifth in the Bundesliga, would currently benefit from the new regulations of the European Football Union (UEFA) – so they also have to hope for Bayern and Bayer. The elimination of Rasenballsport Leipzig in the round of 16 of the Champions League and Eintracht Frankfurt from the Conference League had already caused the lead in the complicated coefficient ranking to melt away.