Fight for the top lights up
There are only 1.420 points between leaders Bayern and third placed Sevilla FC
There were no major changes this week in the Top10 of the Eurofoot European club rankings, but next time may be different, as three of the Top6 teams will play UEFA Champions League matches between today and tomorrow, while four of them will lose important bonus points achieved by this week’s time last year. So, even if they are still at the top of the table, Bayern München’s top spot may be endangered if they don’t beat Lazio, later today, and if at the same time second placed Atlético Madrid succeeds in beating Chelsea.
For the moment, even if they lost(1-2) at 29th placed Eintracht Frankfurt in saturday’s Bundesliga game, Bayern are still first in the Eurofoot European club ranking’s table. The Bavarians top the list for the 26th week in a row, since they overcame then leaders Real Madrid, in August 24th. Their rating worsened, anyway, as they now have 22.449 points. And for next week’s listing they will drop 342 more points, which came from their 3-0 win at Chelsea, at 25th February 2020. So, even if Atlético Madrid also lost a lot of rating points due to their poor performances this week against now 32nd placed Levante UD (a draw and a defeat), they are now on 21.063, just 1.386 points behind the leaders. And, more important, they will drop no European Cups bonuses this next week. So, if Diego Simeone’s team beats Chelsea later today, they will cut the margin to the best European team of the moment and leave the decisions about next week’s ranking on the weekend matches. There, Bayern will gamble over a victory from last season’s 23rd round of the Bundesliga, while Atlético will have at stake a draw in last season’s 24th La Liga game. It’s hard to see a leader change, but it sure is possible to see the two teams closer by this time next week.
The problem to Atlético is their chasing pack, which is closer every week. Sevilla FC kept their third position and are now just 34 points behind, with 21.029, as even if they did not add to their rating via the Champions League (they lost 2-3 at home to now 18th placed Borussia Dortmund), they kept on wining at La Liga: this week, they defeated now 46th placed Osasuna 2-0 in Pamplona. The Andalusians will drop a 67 point European Cup bonus this next week but may get more than that in the internal front, as they will replace a draw from last season’s La Liga when they play at home to… FC Barcelona, who is now fifth in the Eurofoot Club rankings. The Catalans have 19.794 rating points, lost their fourth place to Real Madrid, due to their poor performance both in the Champions League (a 1-4 defeat at home to French team Paris Saint-Germain) and in La Liga (a 1-1 draw against 98th placed Cadiz CF) and will next week lose a 117 point European Cups bonus.
Real Madrid may also improve. The Merengues won against 67th placed team Real Valladolid (1-0) in La Liga and are now fourth, on 20.117 rating points, but will lose no bonus points this week, as they were beaten by Manchester City (1-2) by this time last year. So, even with a lot of injuries in important players, when they face Eurofoot European club ranking 10th placed Atalanta, tomorrow, they will have nothing to lose. That result from last season is also one of the main reasons why the most in-form team in European football at the moment, Manchester City, will have it hard to enter the Top5 right away. In fact, Pep Guardiola’s team will lose 359 points from their win against Real Madrid by this time in 2020 and, even if they beat 33rd placed team Borussia Mönchengladbach, tomorrow, they would have to do it with by a nine goal margin to even what they will drop. City now has 19.656 points, 138 behind FC Barcelona, and about 2.500 more than in the start of December. If they keep their current form, their assault on the top spots will briefly come, but probably not this week.
There are no new entries in this week’s Top10, as Paris Saint-Germain ended up keeping the 11th position, despite their major win at FC Barcelona in the Champions League (4-1). A defeat in Ligue 1, against now 47th place AS Monaco (0-2) cost them most of the points they had gathered in the Camp Nou. The French champions are now on 15.769 points, 131 behind Italian team Atalanta, who kept their 10th spot by beating 17th placed SSC Napoli (4-2) in the Serie A. RB Leipzig, who lost to Liverpool FC (0-2) in the Champions League but won against 118th placed Hertha Berlin (3-0) in the Bundesliga is ninth, on 16.428 points, while Inter Milano is eight, on 16.613. The leaders of the Serie A will suffer in the weeks to come, when they start dropping bonus points from last season’s Europa League campaign, as they are already out of European competition. That is why, even if they beat Milan (3-0) in this week’s “Derby della Madonnina”, they didn’t improve. Manchester United, who won both this week’s games (4-0 at Real Sociedad in the Europa League and 3-1 at home to Newcastle United in the Premier League) is seventh, on 18.155 points.
The first team outside the Big Five Leagues is still Portugal’s FC Porto, who also won both this week’s games: 2-1 against 15th placed Juventus in the Champions League and against Marítimo in the Portuguese Liga ensured they climbed three spots, to the 22nd position. The biggest climb of the week was the one by Belgium’s Waasland Beveren: a 65 position jump, from the 390th to the 325th position. Inside the Top100, the major honour belonged to French team Montpellier HSC, who went up 19 spots, from 106th to 87th. On the other way, it was a bad week for Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam, who dropped 45 positions, from 218th to 263rd.
Please check this week’s full rankings:
