Portugal finished the group stage, far behind France and the Netherlands in the UEFA-International classification

The possibility of Portugal increasing the number of teams in European competitions in the coming seasons is far from that

Portugal finished the group stage in European football competitions, far behind the Netherlands and France in the UEFA classification, moving away from the possibility of increasing the number of teams in the coming seasons.

Without Arouca and Vitoria de Guimarães, who fell in the Europa League qualifiers, only FC Porto managed to reach the round of 16 of the Champions League.

Benfica and Sporting de Braga finished third in the Champions Group and lost out in the qualifiers to reach the last 16 of the Europa League, in which Sporting also has a place.

With a best performance of only 11th place in the group stage, Portugal maintained seventh place in the standings – including the last four seasons and the current one – with 53,149 points, but was far from the positions above.

France (62,164) remains in fifth place, followed by the Netherlands (59,900), but is a long way from the top four ranked – England (100,553), Spain (86,114), Italy (83,284) and Germany (80,909).

Portugal’s seventh place is not currently in danger, as Belgium, which is in eighth place, is still 46,000 seats away.

Next season, Portugal, which was already in seventh place, is entitled to have one team in the group stage of the Champions League and another in the third qualifying round, ensuring equal numbers in the Europa League and another team in the second qualifying round of the Conference League. .

By Lusa