Premiership three set for easier Euro bid
Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are guaranteed to avoid the most powerful sides in Europe should they all reach the group stage of the Champions League.
UEFA today confirmed the club coefficients which are used to calculate each side’s seeding in Europe’s elite club competition.
However, Chelsea will be among the group of eight second seeds and could end up facing Real Madrid, AC Milan or Barcelona, with last season’s meeting against Frank Rijkaard’s side causing so much controversy last season.
Jose Mourinho’s side, who like Arsenal are one of 16 teams who have qualified automatically for the group stage, could even play holders Liverpool who have no "country protection" after being given special admittance into the qualifying rounds of the competition to defend their trophy.
Everton and Manchester United have one qualifying round to go through but the David Moyes’ side’s first appearance in the Champions League is going to be a difficult one. They are ranked 42nd under UEFA’s coefficient system and would be among the bottom seeds should they qualify.
The coefficients also determine which teams are seeded in the qualifying rounds and Everton’s lowly status means they could end up having to beat Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon or even Liverpool to make it into the group stage.
Celtic’s strong ranking should guarantee them seeding for the second and final qualifying rounds and an easier ride to the group phase, and Rangers would almost certainly be seeded as well in their qualifying round.
Liverpool have three qualifying rounds to surmount but in each round would be seeded and avoid the strongest opposition teams.
::Top group: 1 Real Madrid (Spa) 131.326, 2 Barcelona (Spa) 117.326, 3 AC Milan (Ita) 121.191, 4 Liverpool (Eng, title-holders) 115.864***, 5 Manchester United (Eng) 110.864*, 6 Inter Milan (Ita) 101.191*, 7 Bayern Munich (Ger) 97.166, 8 Arsenal (Eng) 93.864.
::Second group: 9 Porto (Por) 93.739, 10 Juventus (Ita) 93.191, 11 PSV Eindhoven (Hol) 84.145, 12 Chelsea (Eng) 68.864, 13 Lyon (Fra) 81.324, 14 Olympiacos (Gre) 46.715, 15 Schalke 04 (Ger) 44.166, 16 Sparta Prague (Cze) 43.223.
::Third group: 17 Lille (Fra) 41.324, 18 Benfica (Por) 36.739, 19 Fenerbahce (Tur) 23.872, 20 Panathinaikos (Gre) 70.715*, 21 Celtic (Sco) 63.476**, 22 Villarreal (Spa) 58.326*, 23 Sporting Lisbon (Por) 55.739*, 24 Monaco (Fra) 53.324*.
::Fourth group: 25 Ajax (Hol) 52.145*, Bruges (Bel) 50.476*, 27 Anderlecht (Bel) 47.476**, 28 Rangers (Sco) 40.476*, 29 Dynamo Kiev (Ukr) 40.200**, 30 Werder Bremen (Ger) 40.166*, 31 Lokomotiv Moscow (Rus) 38.469**, 32 Rosenborg (Nor) 36.665*.
::Others: 42 Everton FC (ENG) 20.864*.
* = must play one qualifying round.
** = must play two qualifying rounds.
*** = must play three qualifying rounds.
