UEFA index: France loses 2 places, Spain at its worst

Who could have said in the heart of summer that after 2 days of the European Cup it was Brest and LOSC who brought the most points to France in the current UEFA index ranking. Yet this is what is happening. Between the qualification bonus for the championship phase of the Champions League and the victories garnered by the two French teams, the Breton club and the northern club silence many detractors and allow France to remain as best they can in the ranking of the index.

Despite everything, and despite the historic victories of Brest in Salzburg (0-4), that of LOSC against Real (1-0) and the brilliant success of OL 1-4 on the ground of Glasgow Rangers, France lost two places compared to the last ranking. The miraculous draw of Monaco in Zagreb (2-2), the crushing defeats of PSG at Arsenal (2-0) and that of Nice in Rome against Lazio (1-4) explain this. There is obviously no danger in the matter since this first European phase will stretch until January and France remains well ahead of the Netherlands (4,813 points ahead), its main opponent for the oh-so-important fifth place in the index ranking over 5 years.

However, this new formula redistributes the cards and the ranking is much tighter. Today and against all expectations, it is Portugal which leads the dance led by a sparkling Benfica team and which inflicted a terrible defeat on Atletico Madrid 4-0. Symbol of the difficulties of Spanish football at the start of the season, the Colchoneros are in tough times just like Real Madrid, Girona, Real Sociedad and Betis Seville all defeated this week. Ultimately only Barça and Athletic Bilbao came out with honors. It is therefore not surprising to see Spain in only 9th place in the current index ranking, already one point behind France, Italy and Germany and even more than 1.5 points behind England…