La Liga have stranglehold over Serie A in bid to secure extra Champions League spot | OneFootball

Last season, La Liga were unsuccessful in their bid to secure a fifth Champions League place to Serie A and the Bundesliga. Despite Real Madrid winning the competition itself, the rest of the clubs in Europe fell short of expectations, and this meant that not enough coefficient points were amassed to overhaul the top leagues in Germany and Italy.

However, things are looking more promising this time around. The Premier League will almost certainly take one of the two extra Champions League spots, but the good news for La Liga is that they are in pole position to achieve the second, following a very successful last couple of days.

Real Madrid’s comfortable victory over Manchester City in their Champions League play-off round tie secured extra coefficient points for La Liga, and even better, three Serie A sides were knocked out of the competition at the same stage.

Real Madrid’s victory over Manchester City has helped La Liga’s bid for an extra Champions League spot (Photo by Diario AS)

On Tuesday, AC Milan were knocked out of the Champions League after a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Feyenoord, and they were swiftly joined out of the competition by Atalanta, who went down 5-2 to Club Brugge across two legs. 24 hours later, Juventus were also ejected after a shock 4-3 aggregate loss to PSV Eindhoven.

As per Relevo, these events have left La Liga with an 83% chance of taking the extra Champions League spot over Serie A, who had previously been leading the race. Those odds could increase further on Thursday as Real Sociedad and Real Betis are in action in the Europa League and UEFA Conference League respectively – and both clubs are well-placed to secure progression to the last 16 of their competitions.

La Liga still have six of seven teams left in Europe at this stage, with Girona being the only club to have been eliminated. Should these sides progress far, it would become a certainty that the extra Champions League spot comes to Spain – and at this stage, that is good news for Villarreal as they currently occupy fifth in the standings, although Rayo Vallecano, Mallorca and Real Betis, among others, are not far behind.