[GocartMozart]

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

[Torque]

Yeah, that's great. I honestly think that no other team deserves it more than United. Our run in the PL and CL has been outstanding. In CL groups United is the only team that has not lost a match and also maximum of points in the group stage. In PL we need three more points to get on the top of the table.
Great signings in the summer, great performance this season, strong squad, great players and the best manager. United f*cking rules!

[Bill_The_Pleaser]

Even if I wasn't a United fan, I'd say nobody deserves it more than them for the same reasons. Tearing it up in the PL, and I'm convince we'll take it. Not just fanboy wishful thinking. Combined with the FA showing against Arsenal and Eduardo's broken leg, I really think the Gunners are starting to seriously slip. And what's more, who else could really stand in our way? And as far as the Champions League goes, I couldn't be more excited. I think we're in for a real hell of a league there with some truly vicious competition.

[macca247]

nothing better than to see unted top and just hitting form at the right time its gonna be awesome watching the true reds in the next few months

[dylangranville]

nice as it is to top the list, i have a hard time believing that you can calculate that with some mathematical quotient or whatever they use to decide that.

what are power rankings anyways? is this american football?

dylan

[GocartMozart]

All the leagues in the world have a set of journalists that come up with a formula that quantitatively comes up with a list. Now you can argue over the assumptions of the list, but i don't think that that list is actually far off from the general public sentiment. You could drill down and give each team they play in the league a weight, and take that into account. You could also add how often they go into the second standard deviation of results based on the lowest odds betting sites put as your mean. There are tons of formulas that you can put together, but the purpose is strictly to spark some interest of the public. Btw the FIFA national rankings are also based on a formula. One that is clearly far less accurate than this one.

[dylangranville]

fair enough, i mean after all it doesnt count for anything to top the list. i do think that perhaps it gives far too much weight to recent results, and perhaps the league difficulty is off slightly. for all the experts calculations, as you say, the fifa rankings are good for no more than a chuckle.

surely you would bet against real madrid beating fenerbache should they meet in the next round of the CL

dylan

[Mark]

I agree, the lists are irellevant, I mean you could probably top any of them without actually winning smth. However it might be good for the morale
however, the fifa rankings do count! Look at England, some poor results, a downfall in the list and they are suddenly no longer favorites for the WCQ draw. Good they weren't drawn with Italy or smth like that in the group...