PL left sweating on extra CL place after bad night for England

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur supporters would have had little sympathy for archrivals Arsenal after their Champions League quarter-final exit at the hands of Bayern Munich but they may not be laughing so hard come the end of the season.

Arsenal’s 3-2 aggregate defeat, combined with holders Manchester City’s penalty shoot-out loss to Real Madrid, did more than just rule out the possibility of an English club appearing in the Wembley showpiece on June 1.

Those defeats also gave Germany’s Bundesliga the edge over England’s Premier League in the race to secure an extra spot in next year’s expanded Champions League. Until Wednesday’s wipe-out, England were fractionally behind Germany in UEFA’s co-efficient table -- the system used to decide how many places a country is entitled to in Europe’s club competitions. The top two nations in that table will be awarded five places, rather than four, in next season’s Champions League and with Italy secure in first place the battle between Germany and England was, until Wednesday, too close to call.

However, Germany now look favourites with Bayern Munich having joined Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals. Dortmund edged out Atletico Madrid in a thriller on Tuesday. Italy are on 18.428 with Germany on 17.642 while England are on 16.875 and that is before Bayer Leverkusen’s Europa League quarter-final second leg against Premier League West Ham United taking place later on Thursday.

Newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Leverkusen lead 2-0 from the first leg and unless West Ham can pull off a shock comeback at the London Stadium, Germany’s advantage over England will be strengthened further, especially with Liverpool facing a 3-0 deficit in their Europa League quarter-final with Atalanta.