Chelsea, Manchester United, Wolves, Tottenham and SheffieldUtd leading race for European football
Monday 2 March 2020 15:07, UK
Manchester City's Carabao Cup triumph is good news for other Premier League sides chasing European football.
Pep Guardiola's side beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley on Sunday in a result that has implications regarding the race for Europe.
Here's how qualification works for the Champions League and Europa League, why the FA Cup and Carabao Cup matter and how Manchester City's two-year ban from European competition - pending their appeal - could further change the picture.
In a regular season, the top four teams in the Premier League qualify for the group stages of the Champions League. Those days of Champions League qualifiers for finishing third and fourth have gone.
Next season is set to look very different, however.
With City set to be absent from European competition for the next two seasons, pending City's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, finishing fifth could be enough to secure a place in the Champions League next season, given Guardiola's side are almost certain to finish in the top four.
Winning the Champions League or Europa League also guarantees a place in the group stages, with Liverpool and Chelsea having done so last season. Despite mixed results in the first legs of their knockout ties, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United and Wolves are still in the hunt in those competitions.
There are three ways to qualify for the Europa League:
Finish fifth (or sixth if City's ban is upheld) - qualify for the Europa League group stage
Win the FA Cup - qualify for the Europa League group stage
Win the Carabao Cup - qualify for the Europa League second qualifying round
If the winners of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup finish fifth or higher in the Premier League, their Europa League spots go to the next-highest ranked team not qualified for UEFA competitions in the Premier League.
For example, last season, Manchester City won both cups and the Premier League. Therefore, their spot in the group stage from the FA Cup victory was given to Manchester United - who finished in sixth - and seventh place Wolves entered into the second qualifying round.
Manchester City's Carabao Cup win this term is good news for the European-football chasers. Because they're set to finish in the top five, their place in the second qualifying round of the Europa League transfers to the next highest-placed side. If City's appeal is successful this would be sixth but if not it will be the side that finishes seventh in 2019/20.
The FA Cup resumes this week - and fans of European hopefuls should follow the action there closely, too.
Should City or a team in the top five also win the FA Cup, and City's ban is upheld, the Europa League second round qualifying spot will drop to the team who finishes eighth - with the sixth placed team taking the second available group stage place.
Could there be a further twist?
Should the winners of the Champions League and Europa League both come from England - as they did last season - are not Manchester City and both finish outside the top four (or five if City are banned), the team finishing in the lowest-ranked Champions League qualifying place would drop into the Europa League, with the winning of a European competition taking precedence over a league finish.
Were, for example, Wolves to win the Europa League and Tottenham the Champions League - with neither finishing inside the top four or five, the side finishing fourth or fifth (depending on City's appeal) would miss out on playing in the elite club competition next season.
