Premier League hopes of extra Champions League spot all but over – BBC Sport

England’s hopes of securing a fifth Champions League spot are all but over.

With Italy clear at the top of Uefa’s coefficient rankings, the second of the two available spots has been a battle between Germany and England.

Exits for four of the five remaining English clubs in European competitions this week contrasts with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich making the Champions League semi-finals and Bayer Leverkusen reaching the last four of the Europa League.

England do still have a slim outside chance of securing the fifth Champions League spot next season but it would now take an unlikely sequence of results.

If Aston Villa won both legs of their Europa Conference semi-final against Olympiakos and then the final, and the three German teams who have reached the semi-finals of European competition this season all lost both legs and were eliminated, England would get the fifth spot.

Results this week confirmed that Italy will get an extra Champions League place next season.

Indeed, both Italy and Germany could have six teams in next season’s competition, if Serie A side Atalanta won the Europa League and Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League despite finishing outside the top four of their domestic leagues.

Two extra places will go to the best performing leagues in Europe this season – and this will happen each season.

England getting one of those places would mean the team finishing fifth in the Premier League qualified automatically for the Champions League.

Uefa’s association coefficient rankings are based on the results of all European clubs across the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Every win by a club from a nation is worth two points and a draw one.

Bonus points are then accrued by progressing through various stages of each competition.

All points earned by clubs from each country are added up before being divided by the number of teams from that nation in Europe at the start of the campaign – eight in the Premier League’s case.

In six of the past seven seasons, England would have qualified for that extra ‘most successful’ spot but the Champions League group-stage exits of Newcastle and Manchester United in December left the Premier League playing catch-up to Germany and Italy.