Premier League close to fending off Serie A in race for Champions League 2017/18 qualifying spots
The Premier League is inching closer to seal the third spot in the UEFA coefficient rankings that will continue to see them send a maximum of four teams to the UEFA Champions League for the 2017/2018 season with three automatically qualifying and the fourth having to go through a play-off round.
The Bundesliga recently overtook the Premier League to second place thanks to the excellent efforts of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund but this season, with English teams doing well in both the Champions League and the Europa League, England are primed to fend off Italy's effort to gain third.
English teams have performed relatively better than the Italian teams this season with Manchester City beating Dynamo Kyiv 3-1 in the Champions League. Down in the Europa League, Tottenham Hotspurs, Liverpool and Manchester United all progressed to the round of 16 thanks to comfortable victories.
Arsenal and Chelsea, meanwhile, have struggled in the Champions League this season but thanks to their participation in the round of 16, they still manage to outscore the Premier League contingent in the Europa League.
With those victories and progression, the Premier League now leads Serie A 73.909 to 70.272 in the race for the third spot. If Manchester City and Chelsea qualify for the next round fo the Champions League, and if the three teams in the Europa League progress to the next round, they will outrank the Italians and secure four qualification spots for the 2017/2018 season.
At the top of the table, Spain lead the charts with a coefficient of 97.713 placing them in prime position to be the first ever contingent of teams who could realistically break the 100-point mark. Real Madrid won the trophy two years back followed by arch-rivals, Barcelona.
Further down the table, Russia are trying to displace France and Portugal to sixth place which sees them send two teams through to qualifying. But with Lokomotiv Moskva and Krasnodar exiting the Europa League, all the hope is on Zenit's match up against Benfica to secure Russia their sixth spot.