Bayern less than 1000 points ahead
It's the first time since October that the leader can feel the menace of the nearest opponent
German, European and World champions Bayern München are top of the Eurofoot European Club Rankings for the 30th week in a row, but this week’s edition marked the first time since mid-October that they have an opponent less than a thousand points behind them. This is that time in which Bayern is having trouble keeping up with… themselves, as even if they won both games this week they lost some rating points, as they didn’t do as well as last season. So, the Bavarians are still first, now with 22.318 points, while Real Madrid kept their second place, this week on 21.427 points. It’s the first time since the October 12th listing that the Top-two teams are separated by less than a thousand points: at that time, it was also Bayern and Real Madrid and there were only 163 points between them.
As we enter a national team pause, expecting no big changes in the days to come, this week’s edition of the Eurofoot European club rankings also saw no position changes in the Top 10 teams. Bayern München won both their games: 2-1 at home to Lazio in the mid-week Champions League quarter-finals and an impressive 4-0 victory over VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, after being reduced to ten men since early in the first half, due to a red card to Alphonso Davies. Even so, their tally was reduced, as they dropped the 321 bonus points from last season’s Champions League quarter finals 4-1 win over Chelsea, getting only 243 from this season’s 2-1 victory over Lazio. Along with that, Real Madrid also grew in their rating, from 21.095 to 21.427. The Merengues also won both their games this week: 3-1 over Atalanta in the Champions League and away to Celta Vigo in La Liga. And in the bonus area, they had only points to win, as they let go a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City is last season’s Champions League and gained 331 points with the win over Atalanta.
FC Barcelona impressively won against Real Sociedad, in San Sebastian (6-1) and is now the main menace to Atlético Madrid, who suffered to beat Real Alavés (1-0), in La Liga. In ranking terms, however, both teams will have to do without further bonuses, as they are out of the Champions League. The Catalans were already eliminated, while Atlético saw their eviction confirmed this week, with a 2-0 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. So, FC Barcelona is still fourth, on 20.446 points, while Atlético travels in the third spot, with 21.238, but none are to expect big growth in the weeks to come. Sevilla FC is an even more distanced fifth, as this week they beat Elche CF 2-0, in a rescheduled game, and only drew away to Real Valladolid (1-1) in the weekend. At fifth spot, with 19.744 points, they close the Spannish pack in pursuit of the German leaders, but are closer to the sixth than to the fourth place.
Manchester City also had a good week in terms of results: they won both their games 2-0, first against Borussia Mönchengladbach, in the Champions League, and than at Goodison, kicking Everton out of the FA Cup. On internal affairs, they improved, growing their FC Cup bonus by 39 points (they replaced the 208 from last season’s quarter-final win by this season’s 247), but externally the operation was a no-go: last season, the win against Real Madrid had given them 417 points, while this season they only received 254 for beating Borussia. So, they delayed what seems imminent for several weeks, the overcoming of Sevilla FC: City are now sixth, on 19.453 points, 281 behind the Andalusians.
The other Manchester team, United, could have had a good week, as they received 333 points for a 1-0 win at Milan, in the Europa League, but than they blew it, losing to Leicester City (3-1) in the FA Cup. Even so, they are still seventh, on 17.724 points, and saw their margin towards Inter Milano, who is eighth, grow. The leaders of the Italian Serie A did not play this week, as Covid19 forced the postponement of their game, but lost some European cup bonus points - it will be like that until the end of the season, as they are out of Europe since the Champions League group phase. Antonio Conte’s squad is eighth, with 17.157 points, only 93 ahead of RB Leipzig, a close ninth who is also out of European competition already. This week, Julian Nagelsmann’s team beat Arminia Bielefeld (1-0) away, in the Bundesliga, but it will not be a surprise if their point tally is to decay until the end of the season, just like Inter’s, as both have UEFA bonus points to drop.
So that is good news to Villarreal CF, who is still tenth, and more than 200 points ahead of last week. They now sum 16.277 points, as they beat Dynamo Kiev (2-0) in the Europa League and Cadiz CF (2-1) in La Liga. They will have to keep it up, though, as now 11th placed Chelsea is still in the Champions League and is only 139 points behind. The Blues were the highest ranked team to climb in the table, overcoming Milan in the closest place to the Top10. There were three new entries in the Top 20, anyway. Eintracht Frankfurt beat Union Berlin 5-2, consolidated the fourth place in the Bundesliga, and climbed from 26th to 17th. FC Porto beat Portimonense 2-1 in the Portuguese League and is now 19th - they were 22nd. It’s the first time a team not playing in one of the Big Five Leagues is rated amongst the Top 20 since the same FC Porto was also 19th in late September. And the 20th place now belongs to AS Roma, even if they were beaten by SSC Napoli in the Serie A (2-0), as they defeated Shakhtar Donetsk (2-1) in the Europa League and collected their bonus. Granada CF (now 28th), Borussia Dortmund (now 22nd) and Real Sociedad (now 24th) left the Top20.
The biggest jump of the week was made by Austrian team SC Rheindorf Altach, who moved up 45 positions, from 357th to 312th with a 2-1 win over SV Ried. On the other way, the biggest fall was by Russian team FK Ufa: 53 spots down, from 294th to 347th. There were no big changes in the Top100 this week, even if Genoa CFC went ten places up, from 108th to 98th, and Newcastle United fell 15 positions, from 96th to 111th.
Here you have the full rankings:
