Why defeats for Liverpool, West Ham in Europa League dented Villa's Champions League qualification prospect?
It was a Thursday (April 11) evening horror show for English clubs in Europe after Liverpool stumbled to a 3-0 defeat against Atalanta at home in the Europa League. On the other hand, West Ham United also dented their chances of Champions League qualification after they lost to Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg ties of Europe’s second-tier competition. The results now have huge bearings on the final outcome of how many teams will qualify for the Champions League from Europe as England now drop in the UEFA coefficient rankings. However, it is Aston Villa who will have suffered the most despite their 2-1 over Lille in the Europa Conference League.
Aston Villa's aspirations of Champions League qualification dented
Going into Thursday evening, England were second in the UEFA coefficient rankings, however, defeats for West Ham United and Liverpool meant that England dropped to third with Germany replacing them in second. So as things stand, England will have only four automatic Champions League spots to play with as Aston Villa sit fifth and will have to contend with a Europa League berth. Had England been fifth it would have meant both Villa and fourth placed Tottenham would have played in next season’s Champions League.
Currently, Italy’s AS Roma and Germany’s Borussia Dortmund are qualifying as fifth placed teams from their respective leagues. However, the job is far from done for the latter as Germany has only three teams in Europe while England still has five teams who can boost their chances for more spots in the Champions League qualification.
UEFA Coefficient Rankings
Italy: 18.714
Germany: 16.928
England: 16.875
Spain: 15.062
France: 14.750
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