Man City lost in the FA Cup final and this is what it means for the Europa League and Conference League places.
Man City will finish the season trophyless after they were defeated 1-0 by Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final. Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the game when he finished a first-half counter-attack after a fine ball into the box by Daniel Munoz.
City wasted an incredible opportunity to level the scores when Omar Marmoush saw a first-half saved in controversial circumstance by Dean Henderson. The former Manchester United goalkeeper had earlier been involved in a VAR check for a possible red card when he appeared to handle the ball outside of his area.
The Blues pushed hard for an equalising goal but could find no way through the Palace defence. City will have to pick themselves up ahead of two important Premier League matches in the final week of the season, with Champions League qualification still up for grabs.
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What FA Cup final result means for European places
The winners of the FA Cup receive a place in the following season's Europa League group stages as a reward for their achievement. City were already assured of a Conference League place at the very least due to their position in the Premier League, which means their defeat at Wembley is bad new for four other English sides.
City are currently sixth in the English top-flight, albeit with a game in hand over Chelsea and Aston Villa in the two places above them. The top five teams in the Premier League will earn Champions League qualification, along with either Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur if they win the Europa League final next week.
The team that finishes sixth will enter the Europa League, and the team in seventh will qualify for the Conference League. If City had defeated Crystal Palace, the Europa League place would have been reassigned to the next-highest-ranked Premier League team, as long as Pep Guardiola's side achieved a top-six finish. It means if City finished in the top six, the team in seventh would have been promoted from the Conference League to the Europa League and the Conference League places would have been handed to the team that finished eighth in the league.
Brentford are currently eighth in the Premier League with 55 points, ahead of Bournemouth on goal difference. Bournemouth are two points behind them in tenth and Fulham are four points below. Instead, Crystal Palace will compete in the Europa League next season. For the clubs that reached the league stage of the Conference League in the 2024/25 season, they were awarded £2.6 million for their participation. Any victory saw teams awarded a further £336,000, with a draw seeing the sides earn just under £112,000.
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