Europa League

[oldcolner]

An article on Arsenal getting worried about coming 7th XD says the UEFA has confirmed the 7th club will qualify if Southampton don’t win the Cup.

The qualifying games start on July 26th (after the World Cup stretching players from June 14 to July 15 )
Further qualifying dates are Aug 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30.

The team finishing 5th (or 6th if Southampton don’t win the cup) goes into Group stages which start Sept 18

20 September: Group stage, matchday one
4 October: Group stage, matchday two
25 October: Group stage, matchday three
8 November: Group stage, matchday four
29 November: Group stage, matchday five
13 December: Group stage, matchday six

Knock out games start Feb 4 with one round each month.

[1959_60]

Still an outside chance of making the Champions League.

We finish fifth and Liverpool win the Champs League.

A great pity about Southampton's capitulation against Chelsea over the weekend...

[oldcolner]

Still an outside chance of making the Champions League.

We finish fifth and Liverpool win the Champs League.

A great pity about Southampton's capitulation against Chelsea over the weekend...

Yes was hoping Southampton would win and stay up. I just hope Giroud has an off day on Thursday.
Champions League would go straight to Group stages so less summer pressure IF Liverpool win it.

[oldcolner]

Still an outside chance of making the Champions League.

We finish fifth and Liverpool win the Champs League.

A great pity about Southampton's capitulation against Chelsea over the weekend...

Been. checking and that won’t happen as the rules have changed. They now say

If the UEFA Champions League holders have qualified for the group stage via their domestic championship, the vacancy will be filled by the champions of the association ranked 11th (Czech Republic), who otherwise compete in the champions path.

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=2499801.html

If Arsenal win Europa and haven’t qualified in the top 4 here, they will enter the CL giving England 5 teams. We get 2 in the Europa League. One is the Cup winners, plus two will come from the League. If the Cup winners have qualified for CL I don’t think Cup losers now qualify.
This chart shows things fairly clearly

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/General/02/49/98/51/2499851_DOWNLOAD.pdf

On eother change is there are now only 6 teams allowed entry from qualification rounds - it used to be 10, so better if we are 6th

[oldcolner]

Getting ready to cheer for Chelsea tomorrow, though I may choke!