Andreas Dimatos writes about the three European championships that will decide the fate of the 2024 champion in Greece in qualifying for the new Champions League and about the…fourth that could send him straight to Monaco!
Three plus one European Championships will decide the fate of Greece’s champions in the qualifiers for the new Champions League with… 50% as the expectation of favorable treatment based on the format changes is held by two of the four teams claiming. the Stoiximan Super League title and specifically PAOK by Olympicbecause of their high rate.
The Czech, Danish and Croatian leagues, of course depending on their final outcome, can promote PAOK or Olympiacos directly to the play-offs of the new Champions League (with one qualification for the League Stage and given participation in the League Stage of the Europa League in the elimination of the event) and the ukrainian league can send them straight to the Monaco draw at the end of August, without even qualifying!
Shakhtar Donetsk have long dominated the Ukrainian league and are well aware that if they win the title, they will avoid this summer’s play-offs and win a direct place in the new league phase, when this year’s Champions League holders will have a ticket to it new competition from his country’s league.
In this case, Shakhtar’s gap in the four teams starting the summer qualifiers from the playoffs (champions of Serbia, Turkey, Switzerland and Ukraine) will be filled by the champion team of the second qualifier with the highest coefficient.
Who can they be with the current data? In order of European coefficient, the Czech champion if it is Slavia Prague, the Danish champion if it is Copenhagen and the Croatian champion if it is Dinamo Zagreb. Immediately following in terms of coefficient in the UEFA rankings are two of the four suitors of the Greek Championship, Olympiacos and PAOK! These three championships will decide their fate along with their own difficult quest to be crowned champions of Greece!
In the Czech Republic, Viktoria Plzeň defeated Slavia Prague in the derby, dethroning them from first place in the standings, to which the other major Czech football club, Sparta Prague, climbed again. The Czech league still has seven games, two for the regular season and five for… one-round mini-playoffs involving the first six teams.
In Denmark, Copenhagen have lost touch with the top spot, six points behind leaders Brodby and Midland, but anything can happen with seven games left to complete the play-offs between the regular top six.
In pursuit of near-season leaders Rijeka are Dinamo Zagreb, who managed Hajduk Split but are five points off the top with a game in hand, six games to go before the final on May 25 and with a two-legged derby in Rijeka between them.
Three championships which, if they stay as they are with their current champions, PAOK or Olympiacos, if they win the domestic championship, will… fly from the second qualification, from which the champion of Greece starts based on the entry list, to the playoffs. Starts four weeks later (20/21 August first leg instead of 23/24 July) and with two matches instead of six for qualification.
This is something that does not apply to the possibility of the Greek championship in 2024 being won by AEK or him Panathinaikos due to the low European coefficient of the two suitors of the title, who are encouraged to improve it in their next European participations.
+1 is none other than Ukraine’s championship. With Dynamo Kyiv moving up to second place, four points behind leaders Shakhtar, six games before the final on May 25. With derbies between them three games before the end, if Dinamo manage to… steal the title, the Greek champions with… 50% (if it’s PAOK or Olympiacos) could find themselves with a direct ticket to the new Champions League!
For Olympiakos, who with their victory over Fener already surpassed the almost certain Serbian champions, Red Star, in coefficient, such a thing will be a given. To make it also a given for PAOK, if they win the Greek championship, they will have to eliminate Bruges to overcome the Serbian team in turn.
