There was still hope until now, but France missed the boat. It is Italy and Germany who pocket the jackpot.
The 2024-25 edition of the Champions League will begin the new formula imagined by UEFA with the disappearance of the traditional groups. Likewise, with this reform, two additional places are allocated to the two countries achieving the best performance in European competitions over the previous year. Particularly successful, the Italian clubs had already grabbed the ball in the quarter-finals, in April. It remained the last place disputed between France, England and Germany. It is also the latter who obtained the Grail. With three clubs qualified for the semi-finals (Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen), only two successes were needed to achieve this objective and the draw of the first club named added to the victory of the second against PSG is a huge step forward. This step also signals the abandonment of France, which absolutely had to carry out its direct confrontations with the Germans to reverse the trend.
Thus, the Parisians’ setback in Dortmund (1-0) in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals forced France to capitulate, offering this place to fifth in the Bundesliga. As calculated Bild, local media, Germany (18,357 points) cannot be taken over by England (maximum 18,250 pts) and France (max 18,083 pts). Good news for the fifth in the German championship which is none other than… Dortmund, ironically the editorial staff of RMC Sport following Paris Saint-Germain’s setback against the Yellow Wall.
