Quarter-final wins for Atalanta and Roma in the Europa League, and Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League, means five sides from Serie A will play in next year’s Champions League.
With the Champions League being expanded to 36 teams next season, two nations will increase their number of representatives in the competition from four to five.
Those nations are determined by their clubs’ performances in all three European competitions this season as calculated by the UEFA coefficient average. Clubs earn two coefficient points for a win and one for a draw with penalties not included. The average is the total number of points divided by the number of clubs.
Despite there being no Italian team in the quarter-finals of this year’s Champions League, strong showings in the two lesser European competitions have been sufficient to place the nation atop the UEFA coefficient table with 19.428 points.
They are guaranteed a place in the top two with Germany (17.928) likely to take second although England (17.375) and France (16.083) still possess outside chances.
Atalanta’s 3-1 aggregate win over Liverpool in the Europa League was a major blow to England’s chances, as was West Ham’s exit to newly-crowned German champions Bayer Leverkusen coming two days after Arsenal fell in the Champions League to Bayern Munich.
With Borussia Dortmund also in the Champions League semi-finals, thanks to their victory over Atletico de Madrid, Germany’s Bundesliga looks set to join Serie A in having five teams in next year’s Champions League.
England’s hopes depend on Aston Villa after they beat Lille on penalties to reach the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League. Marseille are France’s sole remaining representatives in Europe and face Atalanta in the Europa League last four.
