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Champions League - European Power Rankings - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Champions League - European Power Rankings

Eurosport - Tue, 26 Feb 16:51:00 2008

See what happens when you get to play Newcastle? You end up rated as the best team in Europe.

We take into account both domestic and European performances, plus the relative difficulty of each team's league, to find out who is the best team in Europe.

The top three on our list all failed to win their Champions League first legs, giving the chasing pack the chance to close in. Manchester United take over at the top since Inter and Arsenal also slipped up in the league.

Wins against Real Madrid and Fiorentina help Roma climb five places to fifth, while in-form Everton are the pick of the UEFA Cup crop in sixth.

Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Sevilla continue to climb, while Real Madrid are the big losers after a miserable week both at home and abroad. Villarreal and Panathinaikos drop out of the running after exiting the UEFA Cup.

EUROPEAN POWER RANKINGS

1 (2) Manchester United - 23.44

2 (1) Internazionale - 23.21

3 (3) Arsenal - 22.96

4 (4) Barcelona - 22.94

5 (10) Roma - 20.63

6 (8) Everton - 20.26

7 (6) Chelsea - 19.86

8 (9) Fenerbahce - 19.81

9 (14) Liverpool - 19.59

10 (12) Milan - 19.17

11 (7) Porto - 19.11

12 (5) Real Madrid - 19.06

13 (18) Bayern Munich - 18.43

14 (15) Werder Bremen - 18.32

15 (20) Sevilla - 18.30

16 (11) Hamburg - 18.14

17 (-) PSV Eindhoven - 17.99

18 (16) Olympiacos - 17.71

19 (-) Lyon - 16.86

20 (13) Benfica - 16.61

HOW IT WORKS

We take into account a combination of both domestic and Champions League performances, factoring in the relative difficulty of each team's league, to find out who is the best team in Europe.

Scores are based on points per game in domestic league and European games.

Domestic points per game are multiplied by the league coefficient - either 4, 4.5 or 5 - with teams in stronger leagues getting more credit.

Champions League (or Super Cup) victories are counted from the third qualifying round onward as three points for a win and multiplied by a coefficient of 5.

UEFA Cup victories are counted from the first round as three points for a win and mulitplied by a coefficient of 4.

Domestic and European totals are then added together. If a side has played in both Champions League and UEFA Cup, its European total is an average of the two scores.

League coefficients:

England, Spain, Italy = 5

Germany, Portugal, France = 4.5

Others = 4

Example: Manchester United

61 points from 27 Premier League games = 2.26 points per game.

Multiplied by league coefficient of five - 2.26 x 5 = 11.30

17 points from 7 Champions League games (including qualifying) = 2.43 points per game.

Multiplied by Champions League coefficient of five - 12.14

Total score = 11.30 + 12.14 = 23.44
Alex Chick / Eurosport