The Netherlands has written coefficient history on Thursday evening. Due to the victories of AZ, Feyenoord and Vitesse (and earlier this week already Ajax), the counter is at the historic high of 14,200. That is higher than the previous record of (13,600), which will continue to be broken, as at least four clubs are active in Europe after the winter break. Vitesse may even add a fifth.
Ajax not only added 0.4 coefficient point this week, but also kept Sporting Portugal from a victory. Portugal is the biggest competitor for the Netherlands (see below) in the battle for the coveted sixth place, which entitles you to two direct Champions League tickets. AZ and Feyenoord were already certain of the group win in the group, but jointly added a neat 0.8 point for the Netherlands. Vitesse had to win to keep a view on the next round and they succeeded at home against Mura NS (+0.4 point).
Should Tottenham Hotspur fail to take over second place in the make-up game against Stade Rennes, Vitesse and the Netherlands will have an extra bonus of 0.2 points. PSV was the only dissonant this week: it booked a bad result on a visit to Real Sociedad. Nevertheless, the people of Eindhoven – who already collected a lot of points in the preliminary rounds of this European season – do overwinter, so that they can still collect points after the winter. With all points, the Netherlands is the very handsome leader in all of Europe this season. England (14.142) and France (14.083) follow closely with another make-up game on the program.
Competitor Portugal does good business
Not only the Netherlands had a great week, Portugal also added quite a few points. That could have been much more if Sporting had won against Ajax and FC Porto had reached the next round in the Champions League. That did not happen, they lost to Atlético Madrid (1-3) and therefore did not receive a mega bonus. If everything had gone in Portuguese’s favor this week, the counter for them would have been as much as 2.5 coefficient point .
Benfica did add the mega bonus, by keeping FC Barcelona in third place with the win over Dinamo Kiev (+0.4 of the win, +0.83 of the CL winter). Sporting Braga did not beat Red Star Belgrade this Thursday and is therefore missing out on a big bonus, because it did not go to the next round of the Europa League as the leader, but as number two. It could also have been third if FC Midtjylland had won, nevertheless the damage of the coefficient points is manageable. Instead of the maximum 2.5 coefficient point, Portugal ends with ‘only’ 1,666 points. A high number, but from a Dutch perspective it could have been a lot worse. The Netherlands scored almost as well with 1.6 points.
Current standings this season:
5. France : 55,784 (6/6)
6. Portugal: 50,049 (4/6)
7. Netherlands: 44,300 (4/5 out of 5)
Standings from next season (virtual):
5. France 44,248 (6/6)
6. Netherlands 41,400 (4/5 out of 5)
7. Portugal 40,383 (4/5)