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SC Freiburg was eliminated from the Europa League by West Ham United

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Stephen Flynn/Pro Sports Images/IMAGO

With SC Freiburg's exit in the round of 16 in the Europa League, the Bundesliga's chances of a fifth starting place in the Champions League for the 2024/2025 season have decreased.

Starting next season, the number of participants in the premier class will be increased from 32 to 36.

Two of the four new places will be awarded to the countries with the best performance in international competitions this season.

In the ranking of countries with the best UEFA annual club coefficient for the 2023/2024 season, Germany (16,357 points) is still in second place, which would bring a fifth starting place in the Champions League.

However, their pursuers England (16,250) are very close and still have a total of five clubs in the European competitions.

Italy is in the lead with a clear lead (17,741).

The key used to calculate the points is quite complicated.

Points are awarded for victories in the knockout phase, for surviving the preliminary round, for group victories and so on.

It depends on Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen

Only three of the seven clubs that started in the Bundesliga are still represented.

In the Champions League, Borussia Dortmund beat PSV Eindhoven in the second leg of the round of 16 on Wednesday, and FC Bayern Munich also made it into the round of the top eight against Lazio Rome the previous week.

Freiburg were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday with a 5-0 defeat against English club West Ham United, while Bayer Leverkusen managed a spectacular win against Qarabag Agdam with two goals in stoppage time and thus remained in the competition.

According to the current standings in the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig, fifth in the table, would benefit from the additional Champions League place.

This would bring the number of German European Cup starters to a total of eight next season.

A fifth Champions League participant would not be a novelty for Germany; this already happened in the 2022/2023 season.

At that time, Eintracht Frankfurt qualified for the premier class with the Europa League title.

mrk/dpa