Why Man Utd and Tottenham fans need to cheer on Arsenal in crunch Champions League clash with Porto
MANCHESTER United and Spurs fans will find themselves in a horrible position on Wednesday evening – wanting ARSENAL to WIN.
Uefa’s expansion of the Champions League next season means there will be an extra automatic place from the domestic leagues of the two best-performing countries across the three European competitions.
England stood in third, narrowly behind second-placed Germany, at the end of the group phase in December.
But because all six survivors – after Manchester United and Newcastle bit the dust by finishing bottom – won their groups, only Manchester City and Arsenal are in action across the first fortnight of the knock-out rounds.
Uefa’s coefficient ranking sees all the match and bonus points acquired by a country’s clubs divided by the number of teams involved at the start of the season – with England and Spain both having the maximum possible eight.
It meant that City’s win over Copenhagen and a potential Arsenal win at Porto can earn England a maximum 0.5 ranking points.
By contrast, Germany with five teams in action, could have earned 2.142pts, France (five clubs) 3.167pts, Spain (six clubs) 1.5pts and Italy (five teams) 2.286pts.
Big hauls by the rival nations could have dropped England out of the top four.
Instead, only Italy managed two wins, with victories for Lazio and Milan and a draw for Roma cashed in last week.
Both of Germany’s Champions League sides lost and Frankfurt and Freiburg were held to draws in the other competitions.
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Real Madrid’s win in Leipzig was Spain’s only victory – as Sociedad lost at PSG and Betis were upset by Zagreb, while only PSG won out of France’s quintet of clubs in action.
The Prem will then have all six remaining sides in action over two weeks next month, with City already virtually home and hosed and Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Villa confident of progression.
A full house of Prem club wins would be worth a total of 2.75 ranking points including bonuses, likely to move England back to the summit of the table.
It means the true state of the race for the extra spots will become far clearer by March 14.
But in the meantime, the further Arsenal go, the better it is for Spurs and United.