{"id":10124,"date":"2026-05-18T14:16:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10124"},"modified":"2026-05-18T14:16:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:16:43","slug":"how-sixth-can-qualify-for-the-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10124","title":{"rendered":"How sixth can qualify for the Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>As we prepare for the penultimate round of fixtures in the Premier League, there\u2019s still so much to be decided. The title and relegation battle remain up in the air, but the race for Europe is perhaps the one with the most potential for change.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Premier League is guaranteed five places in next season\u2019s Champions League, four through league placing, and an additional allocation from UEFA\u2019s new European Performance Spots (EPS).<\/p>\n<p>However, there\u2019s a scenario where six English teams could compete among Europe\u2019s elite next season. It all depends on Aston Villa, and here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n<p>Unai Emery\u2019s team is currently fourth in the Premier League table and into the final of the Europa League. Both a fourth-placed finish and Europa League win earn a place in the Champions League, though the Premier League is not necessarily the beneficiary if both situations unfold.<\/p>\n<p>If Villa finish fourth and win the Europa League, then the Champions League place reserved for the Europa League winners would pass to the team qualifying with the best UEFA coefficient. Currently, that would be Portugal\u2019s Sporting Lisbon.<\/p>\n<p>However, if Villa finish outside the top four and win the Europa League, then six Premier League teams could compete in the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>For Villa to drop to fifth, the Villans would need to lose at Manchester City on the final day, and Liverpool beat Brentford at Anfield. Should both of those results happen, and Villa win the Europa League, sixth spot will earn Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n<p>Bournemouth currently holds that position, though Brighton, Brentford, and, less likely, Chelsea and Everton, can all mathematically finish sixth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013 Chelsea name Xabi Alonso as head coach on four-year deal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>See more \u2013 \ud83d\udcc8 Power Rankings: PSG and Inter celebrate silverware<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Follow the Football Faithful on Social Media:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Facebook | Instagram | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyFaithful_\">Twitter<\/a> | YouTube | TikTok<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we prepare for the penultimate round of fixtures in the Premier League, there\u2019s still&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}