{"id":430,"date":"2026-04-19T20:17:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T20:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/?p=430"},"modified":"2026-04-19T20:17:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T20:17:44","slug":"premier-league-champions-league-almost-sewn-up-but-fight-for-europe-tighter-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/?p=430","title":{"rendered":"Premier League: Champions League almost sewn up but fight for Europe tighter than ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">The race for Champions League qualification appears to be settled after two dramatic second-half injury-time winners on Sunday.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Liverpool scored in the 100th minute and Aston Villa netted in the 93rd. Add in Manchester United&#8217;s win on Saturday and those three teams look set join Arsenal and Manchester City in the top five come the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But while there might be a seven-point gap separating Liverpool in fifth and Chelsea in sixth, scrolling further down the table, the Europa League and Europa Conference League spots are anyone&#8217;s guess.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Just three points separate the sixth and 12th places &#8211; the smallest margin ever on this date in the Premier League&#8217;s 34-season history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Six points separate sixth and 14th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Only once before in Premier League history has the gap between sixth and 14th been tighter on this date (19 April) and that was in the very first season of the competition in 1992-93 (five points).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Back then only the top three got into the Europe, whereas this year 10 English clubs could potentially end up playing continental football next term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So, with even ninth place possibly good enough for a European tour next campaign, BBC Sport takes a look at the state of play.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The race for Champions League qualification appears to be settled after two dramatic second-half injury-time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}