The Netherlands is assured of 2 direct tickets for the Champions League edition of the 2024/25 season. Due to Thursday evening’s results in Europe, sixth place has become out of reach for Portugal.
The Netherlands secures sixth place and is sure of a second CL ticket
Due to Benfica’s defeat against Internazionale in the Champions League (0-2), the Netherlands could already be assured of sixth place in the coefficient ranking on Thursday evening. Portugal can still earn twenty coefficient points (including bonuses) after Thursday. Divided by the six participants Portugal started the season with, that amounts to 3.33 points. If Feyenoord and AZ would ensure that the lead of the Netherlands is more than 3.33 points, the battle would already be over and the Eredivisie will end above the Primeira Liga in the 2018-2013 cycle.
So that has now happened. Feyenoord took 0.4 point for the coefficient list by beating Roma (1-0), which would take them sixth place if Sporting lost. The Portuguese lost 1-0 to Juventus, so that the Netherlands could afford the defeat of AZ. Given the lead of the Netherlands, it was really only the question when sixth place would be a certainty. Only if Feyenoord and AZ did not win in the quarter-finals and were eliminated, while Benfica would win the Champions League and Sporting the Europa League, would the sixth place still be in serious danger.
Boulahrouz shines in a special video
The Netherlands has passed Portugal on the coefficient list and the Eredivisie wants to know that too. In a playful video of the Dutch competition, Khalid Boulahrouz gets his gram.
The Eredivisie was already prepared for the result. Immediately after the final whistle at Juventus-Sporting (1-0), a special video appeared on YouTube, starring Boulahrouz. Like a kind of mafia boss, ‘De Kannibaal’ takes over a briefcase containing the Champions League tickets. “Thank you, friends,” says the former defender cheerfully.
The video is a nod to the infamous World Cup match between the Netherlands and Portugal seventeen years ago. During the ‘Battle of Nürnberg’, Boulahrouz was one of four players sent off with a red card. The Netherlands lost this match 1-0 and therefore was stranded in the round of 16 of the tournament. Two years earlier, Portugal had already beaten the Netherlands at the 2004 European Championship, then in the semi-final (2-1).
