How Man Utd’s Europa League defeat affects Champions League pots for next season
In failing to win the Europa League on Wednesday night, Manchester United made things harder for themselves for next season’s Champions League in more ways than one.
Not only did they miss out on a coveted Pot 1 spot that would have made their group stage draw a whole lot easier, but they may also have dislodged Borussia Dortmund from Pot 2 – meaning they or Liverpool could end up drawn against the Germans as the third team drawn in a group.
The pots are decided based on a fairly complicated formula, but it essentially works like this – Pot 1 is comprised of the six winners of the highest ranked leagues, and the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League.
Villarreal lift their first ever major trophy! ?? pic.twitter.com/ThArmt8VnS
— 90min (@90min_Football) May 26, 2021
The remaining 24 teams are then ranked on their coefficient points and split into the remaining three pots: the highest ranked eight into pot two, the next highest into pot three and so on.
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Had United won the Europa League, they would have gone into Pot 1 as Europa League winners. But due to their high coefficient score, they now go into Pot 2.
This means that there is now one less spot in Pot 2 available. That spot will be decided by the Champions League final – if Chelsea fail to be crowned champions of Europe, then they will drop into Pot 2 thanks to their coefficient points.
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Who’s filling the 2021 slot?#UCL #UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/UPvEWIbPiN
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 27, 2021
That would push Dortmund – who currently sit on the boundary of Pots 2 and 3 – down into Pot 3.
Manchester City will be in Pot 1 whatever happens as they have already been crowned champions of Europe. If Chelsea beat them, they will join them there, but if they don’t, Russian champions Zenit will take the final Pot 1 spot.
It essentially means that if United and Liverpool want to avoid coming up against Erling Haaland in next season’s Champions League, then they’d better get their royal blue scarves out of the cupboard for Saturday’s final.