We could lose our Pot 2 in next seasons UCL.........
Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 1:56 pmManchester City face prospect of dropping into pot three of next season's Champions League draw if they fail to defeat Barcelona
Manchester City could damage their prospects of success in the Champions League next season if they crash out of the competition at the last-16 stage in Barcelona.
City are borderline whether they are placed in either the second or third group of seeds for the 2015-16 group stages and risk a potential draw with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, or Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, if they don't improve their Uefa coefficient and drop into pot three.
Pellegrini's men are currently ranked the 16th best team in Europe but that could fall if they fail to make this season's quarter-finals.
Coefficients are based on European performances over the last five seasons which is why Manchester United are placed higher than City despite not qualifying last season. Arsenal's ranking also remains high because they have reached the Champions League knockout stages every year in the time span.
City have complained in the past of unfavourable draws in the Champions League group stages hampering their progress. Despite more than £1billion invested into the club since 2008, the Abu Dhabi owners have not seen their side progress beyond the first knockout stage of the competition.
They failed to qualify from a tough group in 2011-12 after being paired with Napoli, Bayern Munich and Villarreal and suffered the same fate the following season against Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax.
Their co-efficient has risen since and they were able to finish second in their group this season after being placed among the second seeds and being drawn against Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow and Roma.
However, Uefa have changed their seeding policy for next season and the domestic champions of England, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal and Russia will automatically be top seeds alongside the winners of this year's competition.
The second pot will be made up of the next eight highest-ranked clubs – and City can't be certain of that. Among the clubs just below them in the listings are Juventus who look certain to be top seeds as Italian champions and Sevilla, Inter Milan and Napoli who are all still in the Europa League and can improve their coefficient in that competition.
There are still a lot of twists and turns in the domestic leagues before next season's seedings are announced and of course City still have to confirm their own participation by finishing in the top four of the Premier League.
But there is no doubt the outcome in the Nou Camp, where they have to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit, could have an effect on City.
This is how next season's Champions League group seedings would look if the season ended during the current stage of the campaign:
Top seeds: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Lyon, Benfica, Zenit St Petersburg and Juventus
Second pot: Atletico Madrid (ranked 5th), Arsenal (8th), Porto (9th), Manchester United (10th), Paris St Germain (11th), Valencia (13th), Bayer Leverkusen (15th) and Manchester City (16th)
City are particularly vulnerable because they could be replaced by Schalke in the second pot if the German side, currently fifth in the Bundesliga, finished in the top four. They need to make progress against Barcelona to raise their coefficient sufficiently to virtually guarantee they would be among the second seeds next season.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... paign=1490
Manchester City could damage their prospects of success in the Champions League next season if they crash out of the competition at the last-16 stage in Barcelona.
City are borderline whether they are placed in either the second or third group of seeds for the 2015-16 group stages and risk a potential draw with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, or Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, if they don't improve their Uefa coefficient and drop into pot three.
Pellegrini's men are currently ranked the 16th best team in Europe but that could fall if they fail to make this season's quarter-finals.
Coefficients are based on European performances over the last five seasons which is why Manchester United are placed higher than City despite not qualifying last season. Arsenal's ranking also remains high because they have reached the Champions League knockout stages every year in the time span.
City have complained in the past of unfavourable draws in the Champions League group stages hampering their progress. Despite more than £1billion invested into the club since 2008, the Abu Dhabi owners have not seen their side progress beyond the first knockout stage of the competition.
They failed to qualify from a tough group in 2011-12 after being paired with Napoli, Bayern Munich and Villarreal and suffered the same fate the following season against Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax.
Their co-efficient has risen since and they were able to finish second in their group this season after being placed among the second seeds and being drawn against Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow and Roma.
However, Uefa have changed their seeding policy for next season and the domestic champions of England, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal and Russia will automatically be top seeds alongside the winners of this year's competition.
The second pot will be made up of the next eight highest-ranked clubs – and City can't be certain of that. Among the clubs just below them in the listings are Juventus who look certain to be top seeds as Italian champions and Sevilla, Inter Milan and Napoli who are all still in the Europa League and can improve their coefficient in that competition.
There are still a lot of twists and turns in the domestic leagues before next season's seedings are announced and of course City still have to confirm their own participation by finishing in the top four of the Premier League.
But there is no doubt the outcome in the Nou Camp, where they have to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit, could have an effect on City.
This is how next season's Champions League group seedings would look if the season ended during the current stage of the campaign:
Top seeds: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Lyon, Benfica, Zenit St Petersburg and Juventus
Second pot: Atletico Madrid (ranked 5th), Arsenal (8th), Porto (9th), Manchester United (10th), Paris St Germain (11th), Valencia (13th), Bayer Leverkusen (15th) and Manchester City (16th)
City are particularly vulnerable because they could be replaced by Schalke in the second pot if the German side, currently fifth in the Bundesliga, finished in the top four. They need to make progress against Barcelona to raise their coefficient sufficiently to virtually guarantee they would be among the second seeds next season.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... paign=1490