What new Europa League format would mean for Tottenham or Aston Villa after Champions League blow

The Premier League may now only have four teams competing in next season's Champions League amid the prospect of an additional English side taking their place at Europe's top table. As a new Champions League format will be introduced from the 2024/25 campaign onwards, four extra teams will participate in the competition.

Two of the positions will be given to the leagues that have performed best across all three of UEFA's club competitions this season in the European Performance Spots. Italy currently lead the way due to their coefficient ranking, thus leaving Germany in second and England in third to battle it out for the remaining spot.

However, the results in the quarter-finals of UEFA's three club competitions look to have swung things in Germany's favour. Following Arsenal and Man City's Champions League eliminations on Wednesday evening, Liverpool and West Ham could also potentially exit the Europa League on Thursday due to the results of their first leg ties.

Liverpool have a mountain to climb after losing 3-0 at home to Atalanta one week ago, with West Ham trailing 2-0 against newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen. Aston Villa may be the only English team who progress through to the semi-finals of UEFA competition providing of course they hold on to their one-goal lead against Lille heading into their game in France.

Given the results at the quarter-final stage so far, England's chances of securing a fifth Champions League place in 2024/25 are slim to say the least after Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund prevailed in their quarter-final clashes and Bayer Leverkusen are expected to do the same to strengthen Germany's position. That in turn could impact Tottenham's Champions League hopes amid the realistic possibility of the Premier League securing an extra place in Europe's premier competition just one week ago.

The Lilywhites are currently in a straight shootout with Aston Villa for fourth spot but Unai Emery's team have a three-point advantage over them heading into the run-in. Tottenham do have a game in hand to come against Chelsea at the start of next month that could prove decisive to the final Premier League table.

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Going on the European results over the past week or so, a fifth-place finish now looks set to result in a Europa League place as it usually does rather than a Champions League berth unless there is a late twist in the tale. It's not only the Champions League that is to get a new format from next season as there will also be a key change to the Europa League.

Rather than having eight groups of four teams in the group phase, UEFA's second club competition will follow in the footsteps of the Champions League by introducing a single 36-team league stage. Each side faces eight different teams - four games at home and four away - and the top eight of the league advance directly to the Round of 16, with the sides finishing between ninth to 24th taking part in the knockout round play-offs.

The winners of those ties will then join the top eight in the last 16 of the competition. Whether Tottenham are to play in next season's Champions League or Europa League, Ange Postecoglou's side will face a very busy schedule with eight European games on the calendar to begin with.

As ever, Europa League fixtures will be played on a Thursday evening as the Champions League takes up the Tuesday and Wednesday slots. However, Matchday 1 of next season's Europa League is due to be played on Wednesday and Thursday as the competition kicks off on the evenings of September 25 and 26, with the opening round of Champions League league fixtures taking place a week earlier.

The hope will be that Postecoglou can guide Tottenham to a top-four finish and Champions League football in their final six games of the campaign. As both Spurs and Villa have some huge games coming up before the final day on Sunday, May 19, it really does promise to be a fascinating end to the Premier League term.

Key date for the 2024/25 Europa League can be found below:

2024/25 Europa League league stage games

Matchday 1: 25/26 September 2024

Matchday 2: 3 October 2024

Matchday 3: 24 October 2024

Matchday 4: 7 November 2024

Matchday 5: 28 November 2024

Matchday 6: 12 December 2024

Matchday 7: 23 January 2025

Matchday 8: 30 January 2025

Europa League knockout stage

Knockout round play-offs: 13 & 20 February 2025

Round of 16: 6 & 13 March 2025

Quarter-finals: 10 & 17 April 2025

Semi-finals: 1 & 8 May 2025

Final: 21 May 2025

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