UEFA Index: France’s incredible start

2 months ago 16

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The Champions League has made its return this week. This new format C1 opened the ball with, for the first time, four French clubs in the running. This is excellent news, especially since the presence in September of PSG, Lille, Brest and AS Monaco ensures bonus points. Suffice to say that France has had its fill before the matches even begin.

Visibly over-motivated by this new Champions League formula, the French clubs, apart from LOSC who were logically defeated in Lisbon (2-0) against Sporting, did better than hold their own. If PSG had a hard time getting rid of Girona (1-0), Brest had a dream start to their first C1 match by winning 2-1 at Roudourou against the Austrians from Sturm Graz. And what about AS Monaco, a brilliant winner over FC Barcelona with Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski (2-1) at Louis II thanks to their triumphant youth, starting with the two scorers of the evening, Maghnes Akliouche and George Ilenikhena.

The Netherlands already far behind

So many performances that place France in third place among nations in the UEFA index ranking for the current season, ahead of England, Italy, Germany and Spain. A ranking to be taken with all due caution since France now only has 6 qualified teams out of 7 with the premature elimination of RC Lens in the Europa Conference League play-off. Suffice to say, there is therefore a good chance of seeing the countries mentioned above (which have 7 or even 8 qualified clubs) overtake France again next week.

Let’s hope that Nice and OL, the two French representatives who will make their debut next week in the Europa League, will perform as well as PSG, Brest and AS Monaco. The goal is obviously to keep that famous fifth place at the end of the season, which is synonymous with a 4th place in the Champions League. Moreover, regarding the Netherlands, France’s main competitor last year, the start is far from ideal with two big slaps for the two qualifiers in C1, namely PSV Eindhoven, logically defeated in Turin by Juventus (3-1) and Feyenoord, thrashed at home by Bayer Leverkusen (4-0). With a lead of 5,050 points over the Netherlands, France can see this coming…