Football News

The Premier League's hopes of securing an extra spot in the Champions League next season took another huge dent on Tuesday night, leaving Manchester United with a massive challenge for the run-in.

Next season, the Champions League format will change with four extra places becoming available. Two of those will be handed to countries with the highest UEFA coefficient ranking based on results from teams' results in Europe during the 2023/24 campaign.

Nations are awarded points for how far each club goes in a UEFA competition, with an average being sought for each country when the scores are divided by the number of their clubs taking part in the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League. More points for round-by-round progression are awarded in the Champions League, with these being scaled down through the tiers of competition, albeit the amount of points for a win (two) remains the same across all three tournaments.

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Heading into the first-leg of the three competitions, England held second place in front of Germany and stood a strong chance of retaining that position - and that would have seen the team that finished fifth in the Premier League this season qualify for the Champions League.

United retain ambitions of a top-five finish, though Erik ten Hag's side are seventh in the table after a poor run of form, ten points off fifth-placed Spurs with six games remaining. However, a far from perfect set of European results has left the Premier League's hopes of an extra spot in the balance.

Arsenal and Manchester City both lost their respective