When you are not able to do things yourself, you have to rely on others. This is the case of the French clubs, happy to see West Ham pull a thorn from their foot, Thursday night in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League Conference. The English club's success over AZ Alkmaar allowed France to retain its valuable fifth place in the UEFA index, despite the threat of the Netherlands.
The latter could take fifth place from our beautiful country provided that AZ Alkmaar won the two games of its semi-final, then the final of C4, all without going through a penalty shootout. If the "Hammers" had not broken the scenario, the France would have lost a place in the new formula of the Champions League, from the 2024-2025 season.
An overall rotten season
Three of its representatives would have qualified for the great European Cup (two directly and one in the preliminary round), against four (three directly and one in the preliminary round) as provided for in the reform for the fifth European country.
The France has fallen into a mess because of new poor results this season, where six of its clubs were engaged in continental competitions. In the Champions League, OM did not go beyond the pools while PSG came out in the 8th final, against Bayern Munich. In the Europa League, Monaco and Rennes did not reach the last 16. Nantes faced Juventus in the Europa League play-offs. Finally, Nice, the last French representative, folded against Basel in the quarter-finals of the Europa League Conference.
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