Which countries are set to win extra Champions League places?

The two additional Champions League spots that are available for the following season are expected to be won by Poland and England.

Uefa have given each of the two best-performing nations an additional qualifying place since the start of the 2024-25 season, when the first round of the Champions League increased from 32 to 36 teams.

The two nations with the highest points receive a direct qualification for the Champions League the following season using Uefa’s association rankings, which show points earned in victories and draws in matches in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League.

Teams in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League each receive two points for every win and one for every draw throughout the season. Although more points are awarded to teams competing in the Champions League than in the other competitions, there are also bonus points available for each round that is completed across the three competitions.

These points are reduced by half during the qualification rounds.

Points earned are then divided by the number of teams that nation entered European competitions at the start of the season.

Nine teams from England will compete in Europe during the 2019-2020 campaign. That results in a nine-point division of all points.

Five teams from Scotland competed in Europe before the start of the season. Three teams remain, but Scotland’s points are still divided by five even though Hibernian and Dundee United did not make it out of the qualifying rounds.

England and Spain were the two nations with the best performances for the entire 2024-2020 campaign, so they each earned one more spot this season. Newcastle and Athletic Club were granted Champions League entry due to this.

The top 10 nations’ rankings were unchanged on Tuesday, but England did reduce their deficit against Poland.

England won two games with victories from Tottenham and Arsenal, while Poland is the only nation without a Champions League team.

Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund both lost their matches, and the German teams both had a bad night and were unable to collect any points.

On Tuesday night, Cyprus’ teams didn’t play, so their points remained unchanged.

On Tuesday, Italian clubs were without a victory. Arsenal defeated Inter Milan, and Napoli were held to a draw at Copenhagen.

Following Real Madrid’s 6-1 victory over Monaco, Spain cut Italy’s lead to less than a hundredth of a point.

Sporting, a shock defeat to Paris St-Germain in Portugal, won with the most points.

Greece gained ground by defeating Leverkusen in the ninth place match against both French teams on Tuesday, which Olympiakos did by capturing the victory.

Denmark retains 10th place thanks to Copenhagen’s draw over Napoli.

Current top 10 in race for 2026-27 EPS spots:

For the question, I’m grateful to Nige in Morpeth.

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