It was a bad week for English clubs in the Champions League as Newcastle United and Arsenal drew while Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur all lost.
The Magpies led 1-0 against Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 match before conceding a last-minute penalty which was converted by Lamine Yamal to make it all square heading into the second leg at Camp Nou.
It’s the first time Newcastle have competed in the knockout rounds of the Champions League while the other five English teams have either won the competition previously or made the final.
But it was a week to forget for the English clubs in Europe’s elite club competition as Liverpool lost 1-0 to Galatasaray, Spurs lost 5-2 at Atletico Madrid, Arsenal needed a last-minute penalty to draw 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen while Manchester City were beaten 3-0 by Real Madrid and Chelsea 5-2 at Paris Saint-Germain.
It leaves Liverpool and Arsenal sweating on their chances of progression to the quarter-finals while Man City, Chelsea and Spurs are potentially already resigned to exiting the competition barring a huge turnaround at their home grounds.
For Newcastle, they will be looking to make history and bounce back from the late setback in the first leg. The Magpies have won just two of their last eight Champions League away matches, against Qarabag and Union Saint-Gilloise.
NUFC’s ‘£56m’ UEFA Champions League boost
Newcastle progressing to the last-16 has handed them an extra £9.55million in Champions League prize money this season.
Estimates have suggested that the Magpies have already banked £55.99million from their Champions League journey so far.
Newcastle received £16million just for qualifying for the Champions League. Their four wins, over Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica, Athletic Club and PSV Eindhoven, has topped that up by an additional £7.2million. Their draws away at Bayer Leverkusen in December and PSG last month also added an additional £1.2illionm to their total prize money haul.
Further payments are also paid to clubs via the ‘value pillar’ system, which rewards clubs with higher coefficient rankings and the TV pool.
A further £10.8million is available to quarter-finalists, with £12.9million to the semi-finalists.
A place in the final in Budapest on May 30 will guarantee any club just-shy of £16m with an additional £5.6m given to the winner. Ticket revenue, plus TV and commercial revenues are yet to be taken into account.
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Explained: Newcastle United’s updated UEFA coefficient after Barcelona draw
Newcastle’s previous Champions League campaign, which saw them beat PSG 4-1, draw 1-1 with them away and draw 0-0 at AC Milan, granted them a coefficient score of 8.000 despite finishing bottom of the group.
Newcastle received 4.000 for entering the Champions League group stage, 2.000 for beating PSG and 1.000 apiece for the two draws.
But the change in format has given more weight to Champions League qualification this time around.
Newcastle United received 6.000 coefficient points for entering the Champions League group phase this season.
Teams in the Europa League or Conference League don’t receive such a boost and can only accumulate points for winning or drawing matches.
A win in Europe grants a club a further 2.000 points to their coefficient score, while a draw is worth 1.000 point. As Newcastle won four and drew two of their eight league phase games, they received a further 10.000 coefficient points and a further 3.250 for securing a 12th place finish out of 36 teams.
It took their coefficient for the 2025/26 season to 20.750 heading into the Barcelona game. And the draw against Barcelona has boosted their score again by 1.000.
Or, if we’re being cynical, Yamal’s stoppage time penalty has reduced Newcastle’s bonus from 2.000 to 1.000.
Added to the club’s 8.000 coefficient from their previous Champions League campaign, Newcastle’s total coefficient score as things stand is 29.750.
While that marks a significant increase, it’s still not enough to see Newcastle out of a pot four place in the Champions League draw and is still considerably less than Qarabag’s at 42.750 despite knocking them out so convincingly last month.
Having a strong coefficient may not help Newcastle massively in terms of future European competition draws, but it will help England’s coefficient, which could lead to more Champions League places in upcoming seasons.
The strong performance of English clubs in Europe last season saw the Premier League granted an extra Champions League place through the European Performance Spot, which saw Newcastle qualify for the competition after finishing fifth - becoming the first English side to do so on league position alone.
Despite all English clubs failing to win in the Champions League this week, the Premier League is still set for an additional Champions League spot for fifth place once again.
English UEFA club coefficients ranked
Here is a ranking of all English clubs based on their coefficient after this week’s Champions League results:
1. Liverpool - 126.500
2. Manchester City - 125.500
3. Arsenal - 105.500
4. Chelsea - 99.250
5. Tottenham Hotspur - 80.000
6. Manchester United - 76.500
7. West Ham United - 69.000
8. Aston Villa - 68.000
9. Newcastle United - 29.750
-------Club with less than the Premier League default coefficient of 22.670-------
10. Brighton & Hove Albion - 16.000
=11. Nottingham Forest - 13.000
=11. Leicester City - 13.000
13. Crystal Palace - 8.875
14. All other clubs - 0.000
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