UEFA ranking: 6th place puts extra Champions League spots at risk | OneFootball

Four games, two draws, two defeats, and no victories: this was the poor record of Portuguese clubs in European competitions this week, with visible consequences in the UEFA rankings.

The draws by Sporting against Juventus and FC Porto against Utrecht, together with the home defeats of Benfica to Bayer Leverkusen and SC Braga to Genk, meant Portugal earned only 0.400 points for the ranking.

Portugal entered this European club week in second place in the season ranking—whose leadership guarantees an extra spot in the 26/27 Champions League for the top two countries—but finished it in sixth place, with 8.000 points, being overtaken by Germany (8.857), Spain (8.375), Cyprus (8.250), and Italy (8.412). England remains in first place.

Limited damage in the five-year ranking

However, looking at the five-year ranking—which determines the number of teams each country has in European competitions—the results of the federations closest to Portugal were similar, which helped to limit the damage.

In the battle for sixth place in this UEFA ranking, Portugal remains in 7th, initially 3.434 points behind the Netherlands (who hold the coveted 6th place, which grants three direct spots in the Champions League), and even managed to slightly regain ground, narrowing the gap to 3.367 points after Dutch clubs also had a negative week (two draws and four defeats).

In 8th place is Belgium, which despite Genk's win in Braga did not have a truly positive week, although they did recover a little ground compared to Portugal and the Netherlands. Portugal's advantage over the Belgians went from 3.766 to 3.716 points, as Genk's victory was the only favorable result for Belgian clubs this round, after the defeats of Club Brugge and Union SG in the Champions League.

It is also worth noting that the points Belgium will “lose” at the end of this season (relating to 2021/22) will be much smaller than those that Portugal and the Netherlands will have to discard, so the standings could change at the start of next season.

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