Even after the second round of the European competitions, France is catching up with the Netherlands on the UEFA coefficient list. With two participants in the Champions League, points appear to be less easy to collect for the Dutch top four. Only AZ managed to take full advantage this week, but the Netherlands still finished ahead of number seven Portugal. France is coming, though.
The Netherlands is committed to holding on to fifth place in the five-year UEFA ranking. This would give the Eredivisie no less than three guaranteed places for the Champions League (plus a preliminary round ticket) for the 2025/26 season. However, France is breathing down the Netherlands’ neck and has already come a lot closer in the first two rounds.
PSV managed to gain 0.2 points in the Champions League thanks to the late draw with Sevilla (2-2). Feyenoord, which actually earned more when visiting Atlético Madrid (3-2 defeat), did not collect any points in the billion-dollar ball this week.
As a result, the Netherlands had to hope for victories over Ajax and AZ on Thursday to still achieve a good weekly score. However, the team from Amsterdam failed to win against AEK Athens (1-1), meaning that the match in Greece yielded only 0.2 points for the Netherlands. AZ was good for 0.4 points at home against Legia (1-0 win).
France achieved a total of 1 point in this round and can especially thank Toulouse (1-0 win over LASK Linz) and RC Lens (2-1 win against Arsenal). Olympique Marseille drew against Brighton & Hove Albion (2-2), while LOSC Lille failed to win at KÍ Klaksvik (0-0). Paris Saint-Germain (4-1 defeat at Newcastle United) and Stade Rennes (1-0 loss at Villarreal) did not score any points at all for the French.
Portugal once again collected fewer points than the Netherlands this week, despite a good win by Braga against Union Berlin (2-3). Because both Benfica (1-0 at Internazionale) and FC Porto (0-1 against Barcelona) lost, the billion-dollar ball gave Portugal only 0.333 points. Sporting Portugal was unable to increase that number in the Europa League, as Atalanta was too strong at home with 1-2.
The Netherlands has almost lost its large lead over France, although the Ligue 1 clubs are still behind the Eredivisie in the ranking. Portugal is falling further behind and needs a miracle to catch up with the Netherlands this season. The difference between the Netherlands and Portugal is now more than seven points.
The Netherlands has collected 5,200 points since the start of this season, making it the best performing country competing for fifth place. So far, France has collected 4,250 points, Portugal has scored 4,000 points, and the Netherlands will see the lead again this week.
The coefficient ranking as of 05-10-2023
5. Netherlands 56,500 (+0,800)
6. France 54,831 (+1,000)
7. Portugal 49.316 (+0.334)