The final day of the group stage allowed France to seize fifth place in the UEFA rankings for good, with a significant lead.
Thursday certainly gave rise to two serious disappointments: while a draw was enough for them to keep first place in their group, Stade Rennais and Olympique de Marseille lost in the last minutes, therefore having to settle for of a roadblock position. However, France had another successful week in the race for fifth place.
As expected since last week, France has indeed seized this precious fifth place, synonymous with four tickets to the Champions League (three direct plus one via the preliminary rounds) and its seven teams qualified for the European Cups. in total in 2025-2026, i.e. the configuration for next season. She even widened a significant gap with 2,264 points: 62,164 against 59,900.
The Netherlands has lost its feathers again
Because if Marseille and Rennes lost, Lens had dominated Sevilla FC (2-1) on Tuesday, thus validating its ticket for the Europa League play-offs, and PSG, Wednesday, drew at Dortmund (1-1) and thus qualified at the last minute for the round of 16 of the Champions League, pocketing five bonus points. Thursday, Toulouse won in Linz (1-2), validating its qualification for the Europa League, and Lille dominated Klaksvik (3-0), qualifying directly for the round of 16 of the Europa Conference League.
Among the Dutch, if Ajax Amsterdam dominated AeK Athens (3-1), and thus won their ticket for the Europa Conference League, PSV drew against Arsenal (1-1) and Feyenoord was beaten by Celtic (2-1). Above all, there was no miracle for AZ Alkmaar, ejected from the European scene. The Netherlands will only have three representatives next winter, out of the five entered this summer, when France still has its six clubs
