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We are into the home stretch of the season across the major soccer leagues in Europe and all of the leagues except for the Premier League now have champions after Real Madrid secured their 36th La Liga crown. Girona did Los Blancos a solid while punching their historic UEFA Champions League ticket on a busy Saturday for developments. Elsewhere, Ipswich Town earned promotion back to the Premier League behind champions Leicester City and sealed a return to the topflight for the first time since their 2002 relegation. It came on the same day that Tom Brady’s Birmingham City dropped into League One despite beating playoff-bound Norwich City on a thrilling final day.
Serie A and the Bundesliga are celebrating extra UEFA Champions League spots via the coefficient system while other UCL, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League berths are still being distributed. Some of the teams occupying the UEL and UECL spots are expected to upgrade to the UCL by the end of this campaign, so with just under one month until the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium closes the domestic club term, we look at who has secured what across the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1.
First and foremost, there are UCL positions being sewn up already with Italian champions Inter taking the first of Serie A’s five Champions League places after an additional one was earned via the UEFA coefficient. Bayer Leverkusen have already been crowned German champions and Xabi Alonso’s men could yet triumph in their Europa League semifinals too which also sees Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the UCL. BVB’s semifinal first-leg win over French champions Paris Saint-Germain secured VfB Stuttgart, RB Leipzig and themselves a Champions League spot for next year regardless of what happens next in Paris. Bayern’s opponents Real Madrid were the only Spanish side to be guaranteed their Champions League place before they even knew how this year’s semifinals and final would work out but their have since secured the La Liga title with four games to spare. Girona’s win over Barca not only leapfrogged their Catalan rivals but secured a historic first-ever European outing for Girona in the UCL.
The competition with the most places assigned so far is the Europa League with most teams currently occupying spots likely to upgrade to the Champions League by the end of the season. The EPL has two clubs currently in there with Liverpool and Aston Villa while La Liga already has Girona and Athletic Club who recently won the Copa del Rey. The Catalans fell away and out of contention for the title in La Liga but could yet secure a UCL berth and right now have a 13-point cushion on Athletic Bilbao who have already secured Europa League soccer despite sitting in the first UEL spot in the table. In Italy, Milan are sure to have at least a UEL berth along with Juventus but both will fancy themselves to snag a UCL upgrade while the Bundesliga currently has VfB Stuttgart and RB Leipzig although both could end up — along with Dortmund — getting into the Champions League should Germany earn the second additional berth.
For now, one team apiece from most of the major leagues has at least Europa Conference League participation secured although current semifinalists Villa have now upgraded to the Europa League while battling Tottenham Hotspur for a Champions League spot in the Premier League. Bologna are currently Serie A’s UECL lock but their form is such that it could be at least a UEL place if not UCL given their pace while Lille have a European spot wrapped up which could yet end up as a Champions League spot and possibly even as PSG’s runners-up.
We now have our first relegations from the European topflights with Sheffield United, Almeria, Salernitana and Darmstadt dropping down into their respective second tiers. Although more will join them in the coming days and weeks, it could take until the final round of games for all of these places to be confirmed.
Teams across the five major leagues have started to be relegated and Leicester City are now 100% certain of promotion back to the Premier League as champions as well as Ipswich who end a 22-year wait to return to the EPL in second place. In Italy, Serie B’s Parma are not yet champions but nobody else in the second tiers is confirmed to go up just yet. A handful of clubs aare sure of at least a playoff spot including Como, Venezia, Cremonese and Catanzaro as well as AJ Auxerre, Saint-Etienne and Angers of Ligue 2, so expect more names to join these ones in the coming days and weeks.
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