In the current European Cup season, the Ligue 1 teams are surprisingly doing the best. However, they are still nowhere near threatening the four CL starting places of the Bundesliga.
French teams have never performed stronger in the European Cup than they have this season, although of course the season is far from over. After this week’s wins by PSG in the Champions League against Real Madrid (1-0) and by Marseille in the Conference League play-off first leg against Qarabag (3-1), they are currently on 15.083 points – better than the previous record season of 2009/10, when they collected exactly 15 points, thanks largely to the CL quarter-final between Lyon and Bordeaux.
The reason: this season, Ligue 1 is once again more than just PSG on European soil, who themselves deliver reliably. Champions Lille, for example, are also in the last 16 of the Champions League. In the Europa League, Lyon and Monaco also won their groups in commanding fashion, only Marseille failed to finish in third place – and now have title chances in the Conference League. As a result, Portugal, who briefly passed France in August 2021, have been left behind again by around five points for the time being.
Four Bundesliga CL starters not under threat despite finishing 6th in 2021/22
Even though the current European Cup season is far from over: the German clubs are only 6th so far with 12.071 points (see overview). Overall, the teams from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, England and France were better than Bayern Munich, Leipzig, Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Frankfurt, Leverkusen and Union Berlin, who also have at least one more team in the race than the five Bundesliga clubs (Spain is the only one with 7).
Classification of the UEFA Ranking 2021/22
1st France
2. England
3. Netherlands
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. Germany
7. Austria
8. Portugal
…
The lead of the Bundesliga, fourth in the overview of the UEFA five-year ranking, over fifth-placed France thus melted by 3.012 points so far – but still amounts to around 15 points. And so, for the time being, Germany need not worry about having only three or two and a half sure starters in the Champions League in the near future.
UEFA 5-year ranking
1st England
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. Germany
5. France
6. Portugal
7. the Netherlands
8. Austria
…