{"id":11055,"date":"2026-05-20T01:12:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T01:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11055"},"modified":"2026-05-20T01:12:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T01:12:42","slug":"five-massive-clubs-at-risk-of-missing-out-on-champions-league-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11055","title":{"rendered":"Five massive clubs at risk of missing out on Champions League football"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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The UEFA Champions League is bigger than ever with the expanded format making participation, and prize money, more lucrative for Europe’s top teams.<\/b><\/div>\n

Even with the format increased to 36 teams, there are some massive clubs in danger of missing out on qualification.<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/h5>\n
Chelsea have been regulars in the Champions League since the turn of the century, becoming the first London team to win the competition in 2012.<\/div>\n

The Blues were crowned European champions for a second time in 2021 and have a proud history in UEFA competition, as the first English club to have won all three major UEFA trophies of the past, and the first club overall in the present form.<\/p>\n

However, the West Londoners need a hugely unlikely turn of events to qualify for next season’s Champions League.<\/p>\n

Results required for Chelsea to finish sixth and secure Champions League football<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Chelsea to beat Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland<\/li>\n
  • Aston Villa to lose to Manchester City and beat SC Freiburg in the Europa League final<\/li>\n
  • Liverpool to beat Brentford<\/li>\n
  • Brighton to fail to beat Manchester United<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Juventus<\/h5>\n
    How costly could Juventus’s shock setback against Fiorentina prove to be?<\/div>\n

    Champions League qualification was in the hands of the Old Lady, but a 2-0 home defeat to their fierce rivals has seen them drop down to sixth. Juventus had a man advantage after Lucas Ranieri’s red card for Fiorentina, but conceded a second in a dismal defeat.<\/p>\n

    Juventus must beat Torino on the final weekend and hope AS Roma and Como both fail to win.<\/p>\n

    Bayer Leverkusen<\/h5>\n
    Bayer Leverkusen will play no part in next season’s Champions League after a sixth-place finish in the Bundesliga.<\/div>\n
    Leverkusen are ranked ninth in UEFA’s club coefficient table, but a disappointing domestic campaign has cost them a place in the Champions League.<\/div>\n

    Just two seasons after winning a maiden Bundesliga title with an unbeaten campaign, Leverkusen failed to do enough to make Germany’s top four.<\/p>\n

    Benfica<\/h5>\n
    An incredible tale unfolded in Portugal this season as Benfica became only the third team this century to complete a season unbeaten, and not win the title.<\/div>\n

    Amazingly, Benfica finished the Primeira Liga campaign third, despite not losing, after drawing 11 games. It means the two-time European champions will watch the Champions League from the sidelines next season.<\/p>\n

    Rangers<\/h5>\n
    For the first time since 2017\/18, Rangers have ended a Scottish Premiership season outside the top two. The Gers finished behind Celtic and surprise title challengers Hearts, a scenario which has cost the club a chance at Champions League qualification.<\/div>\n

    Rangers must wait to find out their European fate. Danny Rohl’s side will be promoted to the Europa League unless second-tier Dunfermline Athletic cause a Scottish Cup final shock by beating Celtic. Should that upset occur, Rangers will go into the Conference League.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The UEFA Champions League is bigger than ever with the expanded format making participation, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11055","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\/11055","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=11055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}