Manchester United cheering for Manchester City and Liverpool in Europe – this is why
Manchester United’s hopes of salvaging Champions League football next season could rest on two of their most bitter domestic rivals – Manchester City and Liverpool – triumphing in Europe.
After their own dreadful showing, United face the bizarre scenario of knowing that Champions League and Europa League glory for City and Liverpool would almost certainly add at least one additional qualifying place to the usual four English clubs in Uefa’s most lucrative competition.
This is because Uefa, as part of their enlarged Champions League, are offering one additional automatic place in next year’s tournament to the two nations with the best European coefficient performances this season.
The early Champions League exits of both Manchester United and Newcastle United damaged England’s chances of that fifth Champions League spot, with the Premier League still third behind both the German Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A in Uefa’s rankings after the quarter-final line ups were completed on Thursday.
However, with five English clubs still involved in various European competitions – compared to three German clubs and four Italian teams – whoever finishes outside the top four in the Premier League could still sneak Champions League qualification through the back door, if English teams continue to progress well in Europe this term.
Indeed, in the context of an additional Champions League place, West Ham’s emphatic win against German club Freiberg on Thursday did the Premier League a favour and might yet prove decisive. It means while Erik ten Hag’s side struggle to qualify through their league position, they still have a chance of remaining in Europe’s elite competition as long as their domestic rivals continue to fly the flag on the continent.
England still trail Germany in the race to finish in the top two leagues in Europe but the league has plenty of opportunities to overhaul the Bundesliga and claim a coveted spot.
The top three in the Premier League already looks certain to include Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City and, while Villa and Spurs have established some daylight in respectively fourth and fifth, United are their closest challengers in sixth.
As well as Manchester City and Arsenal in the Champions League, England still have Liverpool and West Ham United in the Europa League as well as Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League.
There are also potential extra Champions League places if a team wins either the Champions League or Europa League but finishes outside the qualifying positions of their league domestically, as would be most likely with West Ham of the remaining English clubs.
United flopped this season in the Champions League, finishing bottom of Group A behind Bayern Munich, Copenhagen and Galatasaray after shipping 15 goals in just six group games, meaning that they did not even get the consolation of a Europa League place.
Liverpool are favourites for the Europa League while Manchester City and Arsenal both still have excellent chances this season in the Champions League.
A league’s coefficient is determined by the best average performance from all its clubs across the European competitions. Each win is worth two coefficient points, a draw is worth one point but there is nothing for a defeat. There are also bonus points for reaching different points in each competition.
Had this system been in operation over the past five years, the Premier League would have had one of those additional spaces four times.
