Man Utd's Champions League failure poses big problem for Premier League rivals
Manchester United's Champions League exit could end up having a major impact on their Premier League rivals ahead of next year's tournament.
The Champions League is set to expand next season, with a new-look group stage involving an extra four teams. Two of those places will go to the two countries who perform best in Europe this season, with performances across the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League all taken into account.
UEFA will take the average coefficient of each country's European representatives to determine which leagues get the extra two Champions League spots next season. Last season, the top two nations were England and Italy which means Liverpool and Atalanta would have qualified for the Champions League instead of the Europa League.
However, England have now dropped to third this season behind Germany and Italy following Tuesday's fixtures. United were knocked out of Europe following their 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich, finishing bottom of their group.
Arsenal and Manchester City have topped their respective groups, while Newcastle head into tonight's clash with AC Milan knowing they could reach the last 16, drop into the Europa League or be eliminated from Europe altogether.
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West Ham, Brighton and Liverpool have all qualified for the knockout stage of the Europa League, while Aston Villa need to avoid losing to Zrinjski Mostar on Thursday to top their Europa Conference League group and avoid having to play in the knockout round play-offs.
Manchester United have been dumped out of Europe (AP)Italy overtook England after Napoli beat Braga 2-0 to reach the last 16 of the Champions League and United crashed out. There is still plenty of football to be played, but if Newcastle are also eliminated it will be a big blow to the Premier League's chances.
Should the Premier League get an extra Champions League spot next season then a total of eight English teams will end up competing in Europe. The Premier League's top five sides will play Champions League football, while the team that finished sixth and the FA Cup winners will compete in the Europa League.
Whoever wins the Carabao Cup will then end up in the Europa Conference League. However, if the winners of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup finish in the top six, then the remaining European places will go to whoever finishes seventh and eighth in the league.
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