UEFA coefficient ranking France Portugal, Digi Mart USA News: France is losing further ground to Portugal in the race for European qualification places. According to 20 Minutes, Portuguese clubs competing in European competitions went unbeaten across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, winning four matches and drawing one.
Portugal now trails France by 3,146 points in the standings, compared with a gap of 4,832 points at the start of the season. The report says France has 72,296 points and Portugal has 69,150 points.
On the French side, RC Lens lost to Como, a result that weighed heavily on the national total. Other French clubs had better results: Paris Saint-Germain beat Villarreal, while Olympique de Marseille and Monaco also won.
Rennes, Olympique Lyonnais and Lille shared points.
On the Portuguese side, Sporting and FC Porto won in the Champions League. Benfica and Torreense, a club in Portugal’s second division, won in the Europa League on Thursday, with Torreense completing a late comeback in stoppage time.
The report notes that seven French clubs will qualify for European competitions next season, but that at the current pace that number could fall to six within two seasons. The next round looks difficult for French clubs, including Lille against Bayern Munich, Leipzig against Lens and Paris Saint-Germain against Roma.
