Arsenal Given Huge Lifeline In Europa League Qualification As UEFA Introduce New Rule
- The Europa Conference League has an interesting dynamic to it
- No team, even from Europe’s top 5 leagues, can automatically qualify for the group stages
- The side which finishes 7th in the Premier League will make it to the final round of qualifying
- In the knockout stages, some of the teams will meet the sides which finished third in the Europa League
- As it stands, Tottenham, West Ham, Everton, Arsenal and Leeds all have a shot at finishing 7th in the league with one round of games to go
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The Premier League has only one round of matches left to play and despite Champions being confirmed, there is still a lot at stake as far as qualification for Europe is concerned.
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At least seven clubs are embroiled in the fight to qualify for either the Champions League or the second-tier Europa League, as the seventh-place team would play Europa Conference League.
The Europa Conference League will particularly interest Arsenal fans as the highest the Gunners can finish after a fairly lukewarm campaign is seventh place.
Arsenal are ninth on the log with 58 points and will need a miracle in other results, coupled with a win in their final game against Brighton and Hove Albion in order to pull off a 7th place finish.
The Europa Conference League is a third-tier European competition sitting below the Champions and Europa League.
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Qualification for the competition will be through domestic league places, while cup winners from lower-ranked leagues can also qualify.
There will be no automatic qualification to the group stages and only one team from Europe’s top five leagues will feature in the competition.
In England, it is the side that finishes in 7th place who will qualify for the Europa Conference League.
Since there is no automatic qualification to the group stages, the competition has three rounds of qualifying.
For Europe’s top five leagues, the teams which finished in Europa Conference League places will enter the competition in the final round of qualifying for the group stages.
Once in the group stage, a total of 32 teams will be divided into eight groups and games will be played on Thursday night.
This is where things get a bit interesting as winners of each group will go through to the knockout stages but the teams which finish as runners up in their respective groups will still have work to do.
Runners up will have to compete in a play-off against one of the eight teams which will have dropped into the conference league after finishing third in their Europa League group stage.
In total, there will be four final knock out rounds.
Winners of the competition will automatically qualify for next season’s Europa League, provided they have not finished in Champions League places in their domestic leagues.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that Dennis Bergkamp is the latest inductee into the Premier League Hall of fame following the likes of Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Alan Shearer, Eric Cantona and Thierry Henry, Daily Star.
The former Dutch international played a major role in Arsene Wenger's three Premier League titles during his 11-year spell with Arsenal.
The 52-year-old has been fondly remembered for two great goals he scored against Newcastle which was voted the best in the first 25 years of the Premier League.
Source: Legit.ng
