Time has a way of being the great equalizer. Even in an era when cash is king and the divide between the top leagues and the rest of Europe is massive, Italy has shown resilience even in the midst of a crisis.
Since Inter won the treble in 2010, Italy had fallen off the face of the European map. Abysmal seasons in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 were the final nails in the coffin for Italy to lose their 4th Champions League spot. The last two years, only two Italian teams managed to qualify for the Champions League group stage.
But taking a page from the German’s success, Italian teams began to perform in the Europa League, where the co-efficient values are exactly the same. It is Italy’s ‘get out of jail free card’.
Now, there’ a lot of discussion revolving around England. Two teams failed to qualify for the Europa League group stage (Italy’s Sampdoria failed as well) meaning 4 out of the 5 English teams will be in tough competition to advance in the UEFA Champions League. But there’s more to this storm than meets the eye.
Here’s a few things you need to know about how points are accrued before going any further on this:
- Each team gets two points for a win and one point for a draw (points are halved for matches in the qualifying and play-off rounds).
- Clubs that reach the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals or final of the UEFA Champions League, or the quarter-finals, semi-finals or final of the UEFA Europa League, are awarded an extra point for each round.
- In addition, four points are awarded for participation in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League and four points for qualifying for the round of 16.
“The coefficient is calculated by working out an average score: dividing the number of points obtained, by the total number of clubs representing an association in that season’s two club competitions. The resulting figure is then tallied with the results of the previous four seasons to calculate the coefficient. Where two associations have the same coefficient, the association with the higher coefficient in the most recent season is placed first,” via UEFA’s official website
To make this point abundantly clear, winning in the Europa League yields virtually the exact same amount of co-efficient benefit as winning in the Champions League does, despite having not even 1/6th the monetary value of the Champions League.
Italy’s terrible 2011/12 campaign will drop off at the end of this season. With the four point differential being dropped off at the end of the season, Italy and England will be virtually tied in country co-efficients, giving the Italians a massive opportunity to snag the elusive 4th Champions League spot.
From a club prospective, more work has to be done. The two Milanese sides have to get back into European play, and Roma could pick up several more spots should they perform well this season in Europe.
The overall picture in Europe shows a divided battleground, but for the top Italian teams, the traditional giants, must do better.
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