Arsenal qualify for Champions League with Sporting CP win | OneFootball

Arsenal’s first-leg Champions League quarter-final win over Sporting CP on Tuesday ended up being a significant one, as it qualified the Gunners for next season’s competition.

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Arsenal’s late win away to Sporting CP on Tuesday was a positive one for many reasons. It gave Mikel Arteta’s side a lead to take into the second leg at home, it arrested a run of two straight defeats, and the late winner gave a boost to the mood in the fanbase ahead of a tricky upcoming run of games.

But one other significant impact was that it mathematically guaranteed that the Premier League will have at least five teams in next season’s Champions League.

UEFA give an additional place to the two leagues with the best overall performance across the three European competitions based on coefficient average this season, and the Premier League are now guaranteed to be one of those two leagues.

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More specifically on Arsenal, this means the Gunners are mathematically assured of a place in next season’s Champions League.

It’s still technically possible (if exceedingly unlikely) that fifth-place Premier League team Liverpool could overturn their 21-point deficit to overtake Arsenal in the final seven games. But the Gunners are 22 points ahead of Chelsea in sixth, meaning they can’t possibly drop out of the top-five.

With a top-five spot now guaranteed to qualify the Premier League teams for Champions League football next year, there’s no longer any way Arsenal can miss out.

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A knock-on effect is that the Arsenal u19s have also qualified for the UEFA Youth League next season, as first-team qualification for the Champions League automatically enters their academy in the youth competition.

It’s still possible the Premier League could have even more than five teams in next season’s Champions League.

If Liverpool finish outside of the top-five but win the Champions League, then six teams would qualify.

And if either Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest finish outside of the top-five but win the Europa League, that could mean a seventh team qualifying. But there’s a way to go in both competitions.