It seemed inevitable and it happened. Portugal has only two teams in the Champions League in 2024/25 and only the national champions have direct entry. The second-placed team in the I Liga will have to go through two rounds (as happened with third-placed Benfica this season) to reach the group stage of the millionaires’ league.
This week’s European results, with Benfica’s defeats against Inter (2-0) in the Champions League and Sporting’s defeats against Juventus (1-0) and Feyenoord’s victory over AS Roma (1-0) in the Europa League, dictated the loss of sixth place in the arrangement UEFA for the Netherlands, which will now have three Champions League, two Europa League and one Conference League berths. Portugal has five vacancies, but if
The other three places are for two for the Europa League – the winner of the Portuguese Cup will compete directly and the third in the championship will play qualifying – and one for the Conference League. If the winner of the cup is the champion or runner-up in the championship, the third-placed player will have direct access to the Europa League.
The Portuguese representative in the Conference League can finish fourth in the championship, if the cup winner goes to the Europa League, or fifth if the cup winner is one of the top two in the championship.
But there is another way to increase the number of Portuguese clubs in European competitions: if a Portuguese team wins next year’s Champions League or next year’s (2023-24) Europa League or if Portugal is one of the best in arrangement UEFA next season. Indeed, UEFA has changed access due to the new league format and Champions, for example, will have 36 teams instead of the current 32.
Source: DN
