Yahoo News Aston Villa lose their Champions League safety net as Tottenham continue pursuit
Aston Villa will have to secure fourth place if they wish to play in the Champions League next season, after it was confirmed on Wednesday night that the extra place on offer to Europe's top leagues had gone the way of Germany. The Bundesliga will now be the beneficiaries of the coefficient system, after Borussia Dortmund won the first leg of their semi-final tie with PSG.
One club from each of the two countries who collectively perform best in European club competition this season are granted additional places in the new-look 36-team league phase being introduced for the 2024-25 season.
Villa had hoped that they might be still able to claim a place at Europe's top table next term by finishing fifth, with England and Germany battling it out for the remaining place in the UEFA coefficient rankings after Italy had sewn up the first. The performances in Europe of English clubs has suffered, though, since.
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Manchester City and Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League and Liverpool and West Ham out of the Europa League. Villa, who welcome Olympiacos in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final tie on Thursday night, are now the only English club left in a European competition this season. While that's impressive, the failures of their peers means they have no safety net in the run-in.
Having already confirmed a Europa League place, Villa are now three games away from a top four finish for the first time since the earliest years of the Premier League in its current form; if they beat Brighton, Liverpool and Crystal Palace, then Tottenham Hotspur - the only team who can still catch them - will not be able to overthrow Villa. Spurs have two games in hand but are currently seven points behind Villa.
Unai Emery, the Villa manager, had predicted that the EPS would be heading to Germany: "It's a very big challenge we are going to face in the last part of the season, because we have lost the fifth position to play in the Champions League last year - the two countries, I think, Italy and Germany are going to get them [the extra co-efficient places].
"After this, we have to fight. It's another challenge to play for fourth position in the table and we are going to face it with Tottenham. It will be very difficult, but hopefully we are going to get it. If not, and it's Europa League, and it's another very good competition. I don't know exactly the new Champions League looks."
