Portugal far from having three teams in the Champions League again | OneFootball

Portuguese teams are starting slightly further behind than they were a year ago – back then they had 4.284 points and now they have 4.400 – and, to make matters worse, they will have to catch up with two fewer teams (four instead of six), due to Santa Clara’s elimination from the Conference League.

Sporting and Benfica are competing in the Champions League, while FC Porto and Sporting de Braga are representing the country in the Europa League. This time, Vitória de Guimarães will not be scoring points in the third competition – 10 wins in 2024/25, six of them in the qualifying rounds, plus three draws.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands, who have secured an extra spot thanks to their ranking, are keeping the six teams with which they started the season: PSV and Ajax in the Champions League, Utrecht, Feyenoord, and Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League, and AZ Alkmaar in the Conference League.

The only positive note for Portugal – who need to rack up 10 more wins – is that the points earned by their teams are divided by five (0.4 per win and 0.2 per draw), while the Dutch teams’ points are divided by six (0.333 and 0.166).

Just below, in eighth place in the ranking, Belgium (2.515) is closer to Portugal than Portugal is to the Netherlands, but the Belgians have already lost two teams and now have only three clubs left to earn points.

Thus, the Portuguese objective is to close the gap with the Dutch, knowing that a possible sixth place will only have an effect in 2027/28: in 2026/27 there will still be only two spots in the Champions League, with just one guaranteed, for the national champion, in the league phase.

In the club ranking, Benfica stands out in 10th place and Sporting (24th) goes into 2025/26 ahead of FC Porto (28th). If the season ends like this, it will be the first time in history that Sporting finishes a season above the ‘dragons’.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.