The Premier League took a massive blow on Thursday night in their hopes of achieving an extra Champions League spot. Here, Aston Villa News explains what needs to happen for England to gain another European position.
Next season will see a big change in UEFA’s European competitions. Each one is set to be revamped with a league system coming into play instead of the group stages.
As a result, the Champions League is set to be expanded with the best two nations from the previous season earning an extra spot.
It has long been assumed that England would achieve this. Therefore, Villa were thought to have all but secured qualification to Europe’s most prestigious competition as they sit 11 points ahead of sixth place Man United.
However, the race for the Champions League took another turn on Thursday night when both Liverpool and West Ham took heavy defeats in the Europa League.
This puts England in genuine danger of not achieving this feat meaning that only a top-four spot would secure Champions League football.
In this article, it explains exactly what needs to happen for England to secure this extra spot.
Read more: How many points does Aston Villa need to secure fifth place?
Bad week for England clubs in the race for the fifth Champions League spot
UEFA decides which two nations will get an extra Champions League spot based on co-efficient.
As it stands, Italy looks certain to secure one. The nation sits top of the table at 18.428 points.
The race for the second spot is between Germany and England. The Germans currently occupy second spot with 16.790 points closely followed by England on 16.750 points.
However, while England has five teams in it compared to Germany’s three, many look certain to crash out next week.
West Ham looks very likely to go out to Bayer Leverkusen while Bayern Munich are now favourites to defeat Arsenal at the Allianz Arena.
On top of this, Liverpool are very unlikely to make it past the Europa League quarter-finals after their 3-0 humbling to Atlanta.
This leaves potentially just Villa and Man City in Europe who are both not guaranteed to progress into the next round.
What makes this worse is that two of the sides who look set to knock out English teams are German.
How Aston Villa can secure a fifth Champions League spot
The task is simple, the German teams must all go out of Europe as soon as possible. If West Ham and Arsenal can progress while Atletico Madrid also knock out Borussia Dortmund, it would guarantee England’s fifth spot.
While this is now unlikely to happen, Villa will need to hope that this now happens in the semi-finals.
At the same time, Villa going as far as possible in the Conference League will help. This will see England earn bonus points if they reach the semi-final and final.
This may result in a scenario where Unai Emery’s side may need to win the Conference League in order to secure a fifth Champions League spot.
On top of this, Man City also going as far as they can in the Champions League will do Villa the world of good. This is especially true considering City will likely have to face Bayern in the semi-finals if they get past Real Madrid.
Overall, it seems that Villa are in a tough spot if they want that extra spot. However, it is clearly something that can still be achieved by the end of the season.
