Real Madrid leads pursuit to Bayern
The Merengues overtook Atlético as second placed team in this week's ranking
Real Madrid’s win against Elche CF (2-1), last Saturday, in La Liga’s 27th Round, was dramatically attained with an injury time Karim Benzema goal, but that was enough to secure them a promotion to the Eurofoot European Club Ranking’s second spot, just behind long-term leaders Bayern München. Zinedine Zidane’s team took advantage of the Atlético Madrid draw (0-0) away to Getafe to close in on fierce city rivals in the League table, where they are now six points behind, and to secure the lead of the Spannish pack that keeps on pressuring Bayern in the rankings. If they win against Atalanta, in today’s second hand of the Champions League eighth-finals, they will even gain some distance, as they will drop zero points from last season’s defeat against Manchester City, in the same phase of the competition.
Real Madrid now has 21.095 rating points, even so 1.301 points behind Bayern München, whose win over Werder Bremen (3-1) in the Bundesliga ensured their 29th successive week in the top spot. Bayern has a total of 22.396 points but will next week drop 321 from their massive 4-1 win over Chelsea in the Champions League last 16 from last season. It remains to be seen what they will do against Lazio, tomorrow, but not even back to back defeats both in that European game and against VfB Stuttgart, in the Bundesliga, next Saturday, shall be enough to make them fall from the first place they reached last August, when they won the Champions League final.
The third spot now belongs to Atlético Madrid, who is faltering in La Liga (they now have only four points over FC Barcelona) and has a key Champions League match against Chelsea, tomorrow. Atlético has a total of 20.915 points, just 80 rating points behind Real Madrid and 197 over FC Barcelona, who is now fourth placed. The Catalans easily disposed of SD Huesca, in La Liga (4-1), gained some points from their European draw against Paris Saint-Germain (1-1), but are already out of the Champions League and will have to trust on their internal ability to gain some rating points and climb in the table. At least they will not have to drop more European cups bonuses until the end of the season. And the same will not happen to Sevilla FC, who last season went all the way to win the Europa League and now seems to be in a crisis: they came out of the Champions League with a 2-2 away draw at Borussia Dortmund and, even if they returned to winning ways in La Liga, beating city rivals Real Betis 1-0 in the Andalusian derby, they are a distant fifth placed in the rankings, with 19.866 points, 852 behind FC Barcelona.
Places six through to nine did not change, but Manchester City is now closer to Sevilla FC than last week. Pep Guardiola’s squad beat Fulham 3-0 in the Premier League and will have an important Champions League game later today, at home to Borussia M’Gladbach, where they can gain some points in order to not suffer so much with the drop of the 417 they got from last season’s win against Real Madrid. Right now, they are on 19.578 points, a long way from city rivals Manchester United, who is seventh on 17.704. The Red Devils didn’t manage more than a draw at home to Milan, in the Europa League game, and even if they beat West Ham (1-0) in the Premier League will have to get a result out of the San Siro, next Thursday, if they are to keep their position. Good to them that wight placed Inter Milano no longer has the possibility of getting European bonuses, as they are out of the continental cups.
Antonio Conte’s team got an important win out of their away match to Torino (2-1), is more comfortable each week in the Serie A, but will start to drop European bonuses as the Europa League advances to its final stages, as they were finalists last season. They are now eighth in the Eurofoot European Club ranking, on 17.440 points. RB Leipzig had a bad week, losing to Liverpool FC (0-2) in the Champions League and only drawing (1-1) with Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, but is still ninth in the rankings, now on 17.024 points. Villarreal CF took advantage of a bad week to Milan - only a draw in the Europa League and a defeat (0-1) at SSC Napoli in the Serie A - and replaced the Italians in the 10th spot, on 16.073 points. Milan, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Atalanta are all in the 15 thousand points, while Tottenham, Liverpool FC, Borussia Dortmund, Granada CF and Real Sociedad close the Top 20 with at least 14 thousand points.
Portuguese team FC Porto is still the best placed outside of the Big Five Leagues, being rated at 22nd place, with 13.788 points (they climbed up one spot). The biggest climb of this week was attained by Kazakh team Shakhter Karagandy, who moved up 134 places, from 578th to 444th. Inside the Top100, the honours go to FC Augsburg, whose win over Borussia M’Gladbach (3-1) was enough for them to go up 18 places, from 110th to 92nd. On the other way, the biggest fall this week hit another Kazakh squad: Zhetysu Taldykorgan fell 107 places, from 489th to 596th.
Here you have the full list of the 886 teams rated this week:
