It can’t be a party every week: With a nearly flawless midweek behind us, this time we managed to score defeats for PSV Eindhoven, Alfie Z and a Vitesse draw, while Feyenoord was the only Dutch club to win in Europe. . However, the damage to the modulus arrangement is not so bad.
The Netherlands missed a first chance to catch up with Portugal – they beat Benfica Eindhoven, Bacchus Ferreira stopped at Tottenham Hotspur, and Santa Clara closed out the European midweek with a win over Partizan Belgrade – shameful, but not impossible. If PSV Eindhoven win the second leg against Benfica and receive a Champions League ticket plus the bonus associated with it, the Netherlands would still lose one full point on Thursday night.
Thanks to the good performance of the Portuguese teams, France and Portugal are in an exciting battle for the fifth place. If things continue like this, the Netherlands may also be involved in that fight next season. We’ve mentioned it before: then the 2017/2018 season points will finally be written off and the Netherlands will lose only 2,900 points – the season total we’ve already equaled, compared to 9,666 for Portugal and no less than 11,500 for France. Thus, the prospect of an additional European ticket in the future has certainly not disappeared, despite this week less.
The short-term consequences can also be controlled. Next week will be exciting, because a lot of Champions League rewards will be distributed, but the Netherlands will not lose seventh place. The stalking Scotland saw their representative win over Arizona, but he barely caught up with the Netherlands and can no longer claim the Champions League bonus: defending champions Rangers are already stranded in the third preliminary round. Ninth-seeded Russia has already exhausted all its winning cards ahead of the round – Zenit St Petersburg, Lokomotiv Moscow and Spartak Moscow are already preparing for the group stages, FC Sochi and Rubin Kazan are already finished – and won’t pick up any more points this month.
The current top fifteen in Europe
1- England 87926 (2285) (7/7)
2- Spain 80570 (2857) (7/7)
3- Italy 63616 (2428) (7/7)
4- Germany 61247 (2428) (7/7)
5- France 43498 (833) (6/6)
6- Portugal 43,467 (3.000) (6/6)
7. Netherlands 33,000 (2,900) (5/5)
8- Scotland 31200 (2200) (4/5)
9- Russia 30682 (1500) (5/5)
10- Austria 050 30 (4/5)
11- Ukraine 300 29 (700 1) (3/5)
12- Serbia 26 375 (500 2) (2/4)
13. Belgium 25,800 (1,800) (5/5)
14- Switzerland 24,425 (2,500) (2/4)
15- Croatia 24,275 (3,125) (2/4)
Source: Bert Kassis
(Hein Nooijens / VoetbalPrimeur)
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