Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Martin Zubimendi celebrate after their Champions League quarter-final, first leg win over Sporting Lisbon last night.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Martin Zubimendi celebrate after their Champions League quarter-final, first leg win over Sporting Lisbon last night.
Liverpool players at the AXA Training Centre ahead of tonight's showdown against PSG.
Liverpool players at the AXA Training Centre ahead of tonight's showdown against PSG.
Manchester United's Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo during a press conference at Carton House in Kildare yesterday.
Manchester United's Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo during a press conference at Carton House in Kildare yesterday.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Martin Zubimendi celebrate after their Champions League quarter-final, first leg win over Sporting Lisbon last night.
thumbnail: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Martin Zubimendi celebrate after their Champions League quarter-final, first leg win over Sporting Lisbon last night.
thumbnail: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Martin Zubimendi celebrate after their Champions League quarter-final, first leg win over Sporting Lisbon last night.
thumbnail: Liverpool players at the AXA Training Centre ahead of tonight's showdown against PSG.
thumbnail: Liverpool players at the AXA Training Centre ahead of tonight's showdown against PSG.
thumbnail: Manchester United's Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo during a press conference at Carton House in Kildare yesterday.
thumbnail: Manchester United's Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo during a press conference at Carton House in Kildare yesterday.
thumbnail: null
thumbnail: null
The Premier League is guaranteed an extra place in next season’s Champions League, meaning fifth place will be enough to secure a spot at Europe’s top table in 2026-27.
But the stars could yet align to result in seven English teams qualifying.
Here’s how...
Fifth place enough to qualify for Champions League
Arsenal’s last-gasp 1-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon was enough to take England out of reach of third-placed Germany in Uefa’s coefficient table. With Spain still safe in second place, the race to secure the two European Performance Spots (EPS) that go to the most successful nations this season is becoming clearer.
Portugal theoretically could reach a coefficient of higher value than England’s current 25.013 score, but to do so they would need to see Sporting overturn their deficit against Arsenal and go on to knock out Spanish opposition in both the Champions League and the Europa League, where Braga face Real Betis in the quarter-finals. That would prevent Spain from surpassing England. Therefore, England’s place in the top two is mathematically guaranteed.
Liverpool players at the AXA Training Centre ahead of tonight's showdown against PSG.
Liverpool players at the AXA Training Centre ahead of tonight's showdown against PSG.
Sixth could still qualify
Liverpool, the other Premier League team still competing in the Champions League, who face Paris St-Germain on Wednesday night, could yet prove pivotal in helping a top-five rival reach the Champions League.
Arsenal have already guaranteed a top-five finish by moving 22 points clear of sixth-place Chelsea with only seven matches remaining. Manchester City, in second, need only eight points from their remaining eight matches to do the same.
Then comes the race for Europe. Manchester United, in third with 55 points, and Aston Villa in fourth on 54 points would currently join Liverpool in next season’s Champions League, although Chelsea (48), Brentford (46), Everton (46), Fulham (44), Brighton (43) and Sunderland (43) could all have a say in that. Newcastle United and Bournemouth, both on 42 points, could even be a factor with a late-season run of form.
But if Liverpool go on to win the Champions League and finish in their current position of fifth, they would qualify for next season via the automatic berth for the defending champions. That would move the EPS qualification spot one rung down the ladder to sixth, which at this point would help Chelsea to qualify.
But wait, seventh can also qualify?
This is where the Europa League comes into play. There is also an automatic qualification spot for the winner of the second-tier European competition.
In Thursday’s quarter-finals both Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are in action against Bologna and FC Porto respectively. Although the latter are all-but mathematically out of the running for Europe as they languish in 16th place, Villa are right in the mix.
Should Villa win the Europa League (without an English Champions League winner) and finish outside the top four, then they will qualify for the Champions League and the EPS place will drop to sixth.
Manchester United's Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo during a press conference at Carton House in Kildare yesterday.
Manchester United's Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo during a press conference at Carton House in Kildare yesterday.
But if Villa win the Europa League and Liverpool win the Champions League, and finish fifth and sixth in the Premier League, they will both take up the protected European champions qualification spots and the EPS place will drop down to seventh.
No country has ever had more than five clubs in the Champions League in one season, but England could well have six − or seven − teams next season if results fall kindly for the chasing pack.
Explain the coefficient table to me
To work out the number and therefore decide what league gets the extra Champions League spot, Uefa looks at each club’s performance in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. An average is then created: you get the total coefficient score by adding up the points accrued in those competitions and dividing it by the number of clubs each league has in European competition.
How the points work
In simple terms, across the three main competitions in Europe, teams get two points for a win, one for a draw, and nothing for a defeat.
Bonus points are also awarded for each team based on finishing position in the league phase, as well as the knockout rounds. The higher calibre the competition, the more points you get. The bonus points for progressing through the knockout rounds are as follows: Champions League 1.5, Europa League 1, and Conference League 0.5.
Teams that finish 25th-36th in the Champions League (and therefore are eliminated) earn six bonus points, but the Conference League leaders from the group phase only got four.
So, teams earn points for their respective countries. This is then calculated, and the leagues that are in positions one and two in the coefficient table get the extra Champions League place.