Man United handed Champions League boost by their rivals | OneFootball

Manchester United’s impressive win against Aston Villa at the weekend has left them red-hot favourites to finish in one of the top four spots in the Premier League.

Unfortunately for the Red Devils, there is no chance of them ending the season at the top of the table, but qualifying for next season’s Champions League will be seen as a huge success for the club.

Traditionally, it would require finishing the campaign in the top four to ensure participation in Europe’s premier competition, but due to English teams’ performance in Europe this season, that is likely to stretch to the top five for the second consecutive term.

Premier League in pole position

As reported by the Manchester Evening News, the two nations who finish highest in the overall table for European performance will be granted the extra place in their respective domestic leagues.

Teams across all three competitions earn two points per victory and one point per draw in each fixture this season, which is then divided by the number of clubs from the nation (nine for England), and the Premier League currently leads the way.

Spain are next in line for the additional spot, sitting in second place, with Germany the closest threat to the Premier League in third place. But the Germans are 33 points behind in the coefficient rankings, with a decent number of English teams expected to progress into the next round of each of the European competitions.

Who needs what?

Despite England topping the charts, it was not a great round of first legs for Premier League teams in the Champions League, with no English clubs taking a lead into their respective second legs.

However, Arsenal are ironically still favourites to ease past Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen, and Liverpool have home advantage to turn around a one-goal deficit against Galatasaray.

Aston Villa are the next favourites to make the next round but must find a way to beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp after a 1-1 draw at St. James’ Park.

There is little hope for any of Chelsea, Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur, who are all three goals down from first legs against Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid respectively.

Aston Villa were the only English team to win their first leg across the three competitions and are expected to finish the job against Lille at Villa Park.

Also in the Europa League, despite losing the first leg 1-0 at home, Nottingham Forest will have designs on overturning that in Denmark against Midtjylland, with Crystal Palace set for a straight shoot-out with AEK Larnaca in the Conference League after a 0-0 draw in London.

Look after yourself

United fans will be hoping their team can do enough in the remaining eight games to avoid worrying about watching their rivals progress in Europe by securing a fourth-place finish, at least.

Michael Carrick’s side have enjoyed a fine run of results since he took interim charge at Old Trafford in January, and he will expect to continue that between now and the end of the campaign.

Realistically, they should be focusing on finishing third in the Premier League, which would grant them comfortable qualification and see them end the year a remarkable 12 places higher than last time out.

Should Carrick earn United a seat in Europe’s elite competition next year, he will do his chances of securing the permanent position of head coach no harm at all, with INEOS currently weighing up their options.

Featured image Carl Recine via Getty Images

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