Two of three German teams progressed in the European Cup on Thursday, but the Bundesliga has lost a few more points to Spain in the UEFA rankings. Now the direct duels must be won if an additional Champions League place is to be secured.
It will not have been FC Bayern’s fault if the Bundesliga has to do without an additional Champions League participant in the coming season. Although the German record champions advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals against Atalanta Bergamo (6:1/4:1) in a highly confident manner, they are alone in the field from a German perspective.
In the UEFA rankings, which decide which two associations will receive an extra ticket for the league phase of the premier class in 2026/27, Germany is still in third place on Friday morning, still the first runner-up to England and Spain. However, the gap to second place has grown noticeably.
While the Bundesliga averages 19.428 points, La Liga is already at 20.281. The Premier League has long since pulled ahead with 24.791 and can already count on being able to announce the top five in its table for the Champions League. Portugal (18,900) are close behind the Bundesliga in fourth place.
La Liga, with Real Madrid (3:0/2:1 against Manchester City), FC Barcelona (1:1/7:2 against Newcastle United) and Atletico Madrid (5:2/2:3 against Tottenham), took all three Champions League round of 16 finalists through to the next round and thus even outnumbered the supposedly overpowering Premier League. In addition to ManCity, Newcastle and Spurs, Chelsea FC also lost (2:5/0:3 against Paris Saint-Germain).
While FC Bayern can “steal” a team from Spain in the quarter-finals against Real, either Barca or Atletico will get stuck in the direct duel. However, the chances of knocking Spain out of second place are slim, even though one German team progressed in both the Europa League and Conference League on Thursday evening. SC Freiburg came up trumps after a 1-0 first-leg draw in Genk, winning their home game convincingly 5:1. In the Conference League, Mainz 05 beat Sigma Olomouc 2:0 (first leg 0:0). VfB Stuttgart, on the other hand, lost the second leg 2:1 at home to Porto and were eliminated from the Europa League.
Bundesliga clubs would have to win direct duels
However, advancing in the smaller European cup competitions brings fewer points than in the Champions League anyway, and the two Spanish clubs Real Betis and Celta Vigo have also progressed in the Europa League – Rayo Vallecano also made it through to the last eight in the Conference League. As a result, the Spaniards even widened the gap to Germany by a few points on Thursday.
In order to catch up with the Spaniards, FC Bayern would first have to beat Real Madrid and SC Freiburg would have to beat Celta Vigo in the direct league duels. Mainz could add further important points against Racing Strasbourg.
The points that the associations receive for wins, draws and progression to the next round are always divided by the total number of all clubs in the respective association that originally qualified for the three European Cup competitions.
In the Bundesliga, the battle for the Champions League places had recently intensified further. TSG Hoffenheim, VfB Stuttgart, RB Leipzig and Bayer 04 Leverkusen are closely bunched together in third to sixth place.