Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 23:32• Jeroen van Poppel

The coefficient battle between the Netherlands and Portugal has taken an almost unbelievable turn. While the Southern Europeans were just on their way to take over sixth place in the ranking, the Eredivisionists mercilessly hit back with a perfect score in the sixth European round. In particular, the rather unexpected group win of Feyenoord has a huge impact. The Netherlands is suddenly a street length ahead and seems to have the two direct Champions League tickets up for grabs.

Feyenoord was virtually at the bottom of Group F of the Europa League against Lazio, but found itself back in place after 96 grueling minutes thanks to the winning goal by Santiago Giménez (1-0). That gives a huge bonus of five points, in addition to the two points for winning the duel. Just under a hundred kilometers away, AZ also won, in the case of the Alkmaarders in the Conference League from Dnipro-1 (2-1): two points for winning the game, plus one extra bonus point for winning the group (one bonus point was already certain last week and was therefore already settled).

Stand is being replenished.

It didn’t stop there, because Ajax already did its sporting duty on Tuesday by winning at Rangers (1-3). The team from Amsterdam could not get any more bonus points in the Champions League, but added two points for winning the game. In addition, Alfred Schreuder’s team continues in the Europa League, where new points lie ahead. PSV added two more club points with a win over FK Bodø/Glimt (0-2). PSV’s two bonus points for second place in the group were already counted last week. Ajax (2), Feyenoord (7), AZ (3) and PSV (2) collect a total of fourteen club points, which are shared by five original European participants: plus 2.8 points (!) for the Netherlands.

While everything went well for the Netherlands, Portugal had to deal with a setback. Sporting Portugal had good papers to survive the Champions League, but lost at home to Eintracht Frankfurt (1-2) and left no less than seven club points (five for surviving the group stage, two for the game itself). Sporting is very lucky to continue in the Europa League. FC Porto and Benfica did win, but their bonus for surviving the CL group stage had already been settled. As a result, Portugal only adds two points for winning the game twice. Sporting Braga may have won the Europa League against Malmö FF (2-1), but finished third and did not receive any bonus points. Portugal adds a total of six club points, divided by six participants: 1.0 point for Portugal.

Have the Champions League tickets already arrived?
The Netherlands were about to be overtaken, but hit another huge gap in the last round of the group stage. The Portuguese find themselves almost 3 points lower in the ranking than the Netherlands. In theory, the gap can still be bridged after the winter break, but the Southern Europeans now seem to need a miracle. The country that finishes in sixth place this season will receive two tickets for the group stage of the Champions League in the 2024/25 season. On top of that is a preliminary round ticket for the number three of the competition. The number seven may only send the champion directly to the billionaire ball, plus the runner-up to the preliminaries.