Thursday, December 9, 2021 at 11:13 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 23:18

The Netherlands can now seriously take into account two tickets for the group stage of the Champions League in 2024. Viewed over the entire sixth European round, Portugal is only 0.1 point behind the Netherlands, which means that the Eredivisie clubs maintain a lead of a full point. on next year’s stand. For this, the Netherlands can send a thank you to Red Star Belgrade, which managed to control a Sporting Braga with an important equalizer (1-1).

Braga had taken the group win in his Europa League group with a win, with which no less than five bonus club points (0.8 point for the country) would be earned. However, thanks to a penalty from Red Star midfielder Aleksandar Katai, Braga finishes ‘only’ second, earning only two bonus points (0.3 for the country). In addition, Braga now has to play a very tough intermediate round against a Champions League dropout, while otherwise the last sixteen in the Europa League would already have been reached.

As is well known, the Netherlands is engaged in a battle for two direct Champions League tickets for the 2024/25 season. The finish line for this is at the end of the 2022/23 season: the country that then occupies sixth place, takes the coveted group stage tickets for 2024. Portugal won a cargo load of points with Benfica this week. The team from Lisbon brought in seven club points with a win plus overwintering, which are shared by six participants for Portugal: 1.2 points more.

An advantage for the Netherlands was that FC Porto was unable to qualify for the next round of the Champions League on Tuesday, so that Portugal did not get even more bonus points. Moreover, Ajax won the direct duel with Sporting Portugal on Tuesday, which, like the team from Amsterdam, was already assured of wintering (and therefore already received the bonus points in the previous round).

An excellent Thursday, the Netherlands kept on track for direct Champions League tickets: AZ, Feyenoord and Vitesse won their match. The elimination in the Europa League was a huge disappointment for PSV, but for the Netherlands that is not a huge disaster in terms of coefficients. Although the Eindhoven players miss out on two bonus points (for second place), they are allowed to continue in the Conference League. Due to the huge difference in level of the field of participants in the third tournament compared to the Europa League, PSV has a much greater chance of getting far after the winter break in the Conference League. In the second half of the season, exactly as many points can be earned in the Europa League as the Conference League.

Portugal will continue after the winter break with four European participants. The Netherlands is left with at least the same number: Vitesse is still dependent on the result at Tottenham Hotspur – Stade Rennes and can become the fifth team. The Netherlands will continue in the Conference League with three or four participants. On paper, the third tournament is an absolute gold mine for the Eredivisionists: the field of participants is relatively weak, so that the Netherlands should be able to walk further away from Portugal in the second half of the season. The Portuguese clubs meet much stronger opponents in the Champions League (Sporting Portugal and Benfica) and Europa League (FC Porto and Braga).