Sevilla FC puts pressure on Real's third place
The Andalusians overcame FC Barcelona and are breathing on Real Madrid's neck
A win at SD Eibar (2-0) allowed Sevilla FC to move up one place in this week’s edition of the Eurofoot club rankings. The Andalusians are now the fourth team in Europe, having overcome FC Barcelona, who dropped to the fifth spot, even if they beat Athletic Bilbau at home (2-1). Both teams are terribly close to third placed Real Madrid, whose bad results had them loose an advantage of around 1.900 rating points in just three weeks. The Eurofoot club rankings are still led by German team Bayern München, who sits comfortably on top, 1.828 points ahead of second placed Atlético Madrid.
FC Bayern disposed of TSG Hoffenheim (4-1) in the 19th round of the Bundesliga, leading the rankings with 23.043 points. Spanish League leaders Atlético Madrid, who beat Cadiz CF (4-2) away from home, kept their second place and their excellent rating on 21.215 points. These two teams top the Eurofoot club rankings since January 4th, when the “Colchoneros” took second place from city rivals Real Madrid. Zinedine Zidane’s team, who led the table for five weeks in 2020, from July 7th to August 24th, lost at home to CD Levante (2-1) and saw their rating fall a little bit more. They are now on 19.795 points, just 32 points ahead of Sevilla FC. A difference that Julen Lopetegui’s team may overcome if they get a result from their Cup tie, this tuesday, at Almeria, and if they keep up the pace in next weekend’s La Liga match, at home to Getafe CF.
The Spanish teams still dominate the Top 10, as FC Barcelona is fifth, also close, on 19.139 points. Recent form by Manchester City is already menacing, as they are now just 305 points behind Barça, on sixth place. This week, Pep Guardiola’s team beat West Bromwich (5-0) and Sheffield United (1-0), reaching 18.834 points, their best rating since March 2020, when they were third placed and above 19.000 points. Their current eight Premier League wins in a row already allowed them to gain almost 2.000 points and move up two places since mid-December.
There are two new teams in the Eurofoot Top10 and both are Italian. Inter Milano moved up four places, from 12th to eight, by beating Serie A leaders and city rivals Milan in the Cup quarter-finals (2-1) and Benevento Calcio (4-0) in the League. They now have 16.473 points, 630 behind seventh placed Manchester United, who had a bad week, losing at home to Sheffield United (1-2) and not getting more than a draw (0-0) from their visit to Arsenal. The other new entrant in the Top10 was Atalanta, who is now 10th, on 16.079 points. The Bergamo team benefited from the bonus from beating Lazio (3-2) in the quarter-finals of the Cup, and that even allowed them to mitigate the League defeat against the same Lazio team (who is 30th, by the way) in the League (1-3). Liverpool FC is now ninth, on 16.296 points: the Reds won twice this week, at Tottenham and West Ham (always 3-1) and if they keep the pace they may recover in a table they led for 26 weeks, from January until July 2020. The problem being the high standard results they are dropping every week, from their extraordinary 2019/20 season.
Off course that if there are two new Top10 teams, two must have dropped out: that happened to Paris Saint-Germain, who fell from the ninth to the 14th place after the 3-2 loss at FC Lorient. They are still the best team outside the four most powerful Leagues. The best team outside the Big Five Leagues, instead, is still Portugal’s FC Porto, who kept their 23rd place.
Serie A leaders Milan also fell from 10th to 12th place, even if they won at Bologna FC (2-1), mainly because they were eliminated from the Cup by Inter (1-2) and lost last season’s cup quarter-final bonus. Also remarkable was the four place climb by German team RB Leipzig, who moved up four spots, from 15th to 11th after beating Bayer Leverkusen (1-0). Peter Bosz’s team, instead, fell from 14th to 16th, even so a smoother drop than the one experienced by Tottenham, who moved down eight places, from 19th to 27th.
This week’s biggest climb was attained by Croatian team HNK Sibenik, who won twice away from home at Zagreb, first against Lokomotiva (4-0) and later at champions Dynamo (2-1), thus moving 131 places, from the 498th to the 367th spot. If you only consider the Top100, where moving upwards is tougher, it was Newcastle United who had the nest week: even if they lost at home to Leeds United midweek, their Goodison win against Everton (2-0) ensured them a 21 place-climb, from the 104th to the 83rd position.
Downwards, the largest drop of the week was experienced by Netherland’s FC Emmen, who fell 97 spots, from the 365th to the 462nd place. But there’s nothing better that to take a look at the full table and find your favorite team.
