European Club Rankings After April 5-7 Matches
Are you ready for the most pivotal week of the 2018-19 European football season so far? We are.
The UEFA Champions League quarter-finals begin on Tuesday and continue on Wednesday before Thursday brings the Europa League equivalent. They promise to be three epic days as the best match up against the best, and the games will have a defining impact on the order of our teams here.
The European Club Rankings is a list of the top teams in order of form and performance at this stage of the season.
You can read the previous set of rankings here.
20. Lille (-1)
Lille only mustered a 1-1 draw against Stade de Reims on Sunday, but given Lyon lost 3-1 to Dijon, their lead on Les Gones still grew (from four points to five).
19. Benfica (+1)
Benfica came from behind to beat Feirense 4-1, a result that keeps them top of the table, ahead of FC Porto on goal difference. These next two weeks bring potentially season-defining ties with Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League.
18. Real Madrid (-1)
Even with Zinedine Zidane back in town, things aren't going smoothly for Real Madrid.
Midweek saw them lose for the first time under his (second) tutelage, 2-1 to Valencia, and while they did bounce back with a 2-1 win over Eibar on Saturday, it was a bit of a struggle at times.
17. Arsenal (-1)
Arsenal have been electric at home recently (six league wins from six) but quite poor away (one league win from six). Their latest road trip was Sunday's 1-0 loss to Everton, in which they were poor across the board.
The concern will be that four of their last six Premier League fixtures are away from the Emirates Stadium, and they're all against potentially tricky opponents in Watford, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and Burnley. With the race for a top-four spot very tight, they're going to have to buck up considerably if they're to beat two of Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham.
16. Eintracht Frankfurt (+2)
A 98th-minute penalty from Luka Jovic earned Frankfurt a crucial 2-1 victory over Schalke on Saturday. It moves them four points clear of Borussia Monchengladbach in fifth and extends their Bundesliga winning streak to six.
15. Lyon (-2)
It was a real stinker of a week for Lyon, who lost in both the Coupe de France and Ligue 1, conceding three in each game.
All hopes of silverware for this season are now officially dashed, their campaign becoming solely about chasing Champions League football for next term.
14. Chelsea (+1)
Chelsea's excellent midweek victory against Brighton raised yet more questions of Maurizio Sarri.
In it, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek excelled, powering a strong performance in their 3-0 win. The duo have just five Premier League starts between them, but their showings against Brighton have left fans even more confused as to why they've not been turned to more regularly.
13. Tottenham Hotspur (+1)
Tottenham's new stadium is open for business, and Mauricio Pochettino's men did indeed benefit from the "new stadium bounce" the B/R Football Ranks crew discussed in March.
Heung-Min Son scored the first-ever competitive goal there and set Spurs up for a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace—their first three-point haul since February 10!
12. Napoli (Stay)
In avoiding defeat to Genoa, Napoli postponed Juventus' title celebration by at least a week. That's about it in terms of the significance in Serie A's late Sunday night game.
11. Atletico Madrid (-2)
Ten-man Atletico hung on valiantly, like the Atletico of old, but eventually caved to Barcelona's quality in La Liga's titanic tussle on Saturday.
It's perhaps a sign of the times. In their heyday, this Atleti group may well have hung on...but they're approaching the end of an iconic cycle.
10. FC Porto (+1)
League: 2nd | Taca da Liga: Out (Finalist) | Taca de Portugal: Final | Champions League: Quarter-finals
A 1-1 draw with Braga midweek completed an aggregate semi-final cup win for FC Porto, sealing passage to the final in May. Then a 2-0 victory over Boavista on Friday kept the pressure on Benfica at the top of the Primeira Liga.
Next up is Liverpool in the Champions League, an almighty challenge.
9. Ajax (+1)
League: 1st | KNVB Cup: Final | Champions League: Quarter-finals
Wednesday: Ajax net five as they beat FC Emmen.
Saturday: Ajax score four in defeating Willem II.
And just like that, De Godenzonen are top of the Eredivisie! They've now scored 100 and counting in the league alone and look in fine fettle ahead of the Champions League quarter-finals.
8. Manchester United (Stay)
League: 6th | Carabao Cup: Out (3rd round) | FA Cup: Out (Quarter-finals) | Champions League: Quarter-finals
United had the weekend off, giving them the chance to fully focus and prepare for the visit of Barcelona on Wednesday.
7. Borussia Dortmund (-1)
League: 2nd | DFB-Pokal: Out (3rd round) | Champions League: Out (Round of 16)
Not even the most pessimistic Dortmund fan would have expected their team to be 4-0 down to Bayern Munich by half-time on Saturday, but sometimes football can just go really, really wrong.
By the final whistle Robert Lewandowski had added one more, making it 5-0 and swinging the Bundesliga title race momentum away from BVB. "We played and defended catastrophically," Marco Reus admitted, per DW.
6. Paris Saint-Germain (-1)
League: 1st | Coupe de France: Final | Coupe de la Ligue: Out (Quarter-finals) | Champions League: Out (Round of 16)
A win at home to Strasbourg on Sunday evening would have secured PSG the Ligue 1 title with an incredible eight games to play, but they could only muster a 2-2 draw after a stodgy performance and a remarkable miss from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter—they'll etch their names on the trophy next week, or the week after at the latest—but it's enough to see them drop one in our rankings.
5. Bayern Munich (+2)
League: 1st | DFB-Pokal: Semi-finals | Champions League: Out (Round of 16)
Bayern scored 10 goals last week, split evenly into two batches of five.
First, Heidenheim were seen off 5-4, booking them a place in the DFB-Pokal semi-finals, then Dortmund were crushed 5-0, securing the clear advantage in the Bundesliga title race with just six games to go.
Even in what has to be considered a disappointing season for Die Roten, they've still managed to put themselves in a position to win a domestic double.
4. Juventus (Stay)
League: 1st | Coppa Italia: Out (Quarter-finals) | Champions League: Quarter-finals
Once again it was Moise Kean who played the part of hero for Juventus this weekend, stepping off the bench and burying a brilliant winner against AC Milan.
Had Genoa beaten Napoli on Sunday, it would have confirmed the Bianconeri as Scudetto winners, but that eventuality is inevitable. It will probably happen next week instead.
3. Liverpool (Stay)
League: 1st | Carabao Cup: Out (3rd round) | FA Cup: Out (3rd round) | Champions League: Quarter-finals
In the past week or so, Liverpool have passed two stern tests of their Premier League title credentials.
They dug out a 2-1 victory over Tottenham at the end of March, then did the same against Southampton on Friday. Both matches required late input from Mohamed Salah in one way or another, and the final whistles in both games were met with collective sighs of relief.
2. Barcelona (Stay)
League: 1st | Copa del Rey: Final | Champions League: Quarter-finals
Last week saw Barcelona play out one of the games of the season against Villarreal, in which they went into second-half injury time 4-2 down...and still managed to earn a point.
The two players who scored to rescue that situation, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, both stepped forward at the weekend against Atletico Madrid, breaking their resistance late on with a goal each and opening up a mammoth 11-point lead at the top of La Liga.
1. Manchester City (Stay)
League: 2nd | Carabao Cup: Winners | FA Cup: Final | Champions League: Quarter-finals
Man City didn't come close to hitting their top level at Wembley on Saturday, but they didn't really need to.
An early goal from Gabriel Jesus gave them a lead that they pretty much sat on, accruing more than 70 per cent of the possession and holding Brighton to very few chances.
In midweek, they beat Cardiff City with a similar measure of ease, extending their league win streak to eight.
All statistics via WhoScored.com.
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