Benfica and Sporting hoping for Betis, Aston Villa or… FC Porto

In partnership with

Portal dos Dragões

·21 mars 2026

Benfica and Sporting hoping for Betis, Aston Villa or… FC Porto

Portugal may still secure two teams with direct entry into next season’s Champions League, without the need to go through a preliminary round. For this to happen, one condition must be met: the winner of the Europa League must finish their national league in a position that grants direct access to the Champions League.

At the moment, only three of the teams qualified for the Europa League quarter-finals are in a position for direct qualification to the Champions League through their respective leagues:

Vidéos OneFootball

Aston Villa is fourth in England (the top five qualify, and this number could rise to six)
Betis is fifth (the top five qualify, provided Spain maintains second place in the annual ranking)
FC Porto is first in Portugal

Additionally, Celta Vigo is still in the running, currently occupying sixth place in Spain, but moving up to fifth would mean overtaking Betis, so the effect would be the same.

If the leagues ended today, Sporting would enter the Champions League directly

If Aston Villa, Betis, or FC Porto therefore maintain a direct qualification spot for the prestigious competition and win the Europa League, a vacancy opens up that will be filled by the highest-ranked club in UEFA’s ranking among those qualifying for the Champions League preliminary rounds.

In this case, it is almost certain that this spot will go to the second-placed team in Portugal, since Benfica, Sporting, and also FC Porto are the Portuguese teams best positioned in the ranking among those who could reach the Champions League preliminaries. This is for two reasons.

All clubs ahead of FC Porto, Benfica, and Sporting in the UEFA ranking belong to the Big-5, and England, Spain, Germany, and Italy do not place teams in the preliminary rounds.
France does place a team in the preliminary rounds, it’s true, but only PSG is ahead of the three Portuguese clubs in the UEFA ranking, and they are guaranteed direct qualification. All the others are behind.

Thus, Sporting and Benfica are rooting for Aston Villa, Betis… and even FC Porto, if the Dragons become national champions. Moreover, if one of these three clubs wins the Europa League and the leagues finish as they are right now, it will be Sporting who benefits from the direct qualification spot for the Champions League.

As for FC Porto, they can still qualify by winning the national title or the Europa League. If they fail in both objectives, they will also depend on Aston Villa or Betis, who would secure them direct entry into the Champions League if they finish the league in second place.

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