Eredivisie winner loses automatic Champions League qualifying spot from 2018/19

According to the latest co-efficient rankings released, the Dutch Eredivisie will lose its automatic Champions League group stage qualifying spot in the 2018/19 season. The Netherlands have slipped out of the top 12 (they’re now in 13th spot), and this means their 2017/18 champions will have to play the qualifying stages of the Champions League.

There will also be four guaranteed spaces to each of the top four associations (that’s sixteen clubs guaranteed a group stage Champions League ticket). For example, the fourth place Premiership team originally had to play a qualifying round tie, but will now qualify automatically. The earlier system had a guaranteed group stage spot for nations 1-12 in the co-efficient ranking table, but with these extra spots, only nations 1-10 will be guaranteed a spot.

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Can Wolves spring another upset?

After upsetting Liverpool in the fourth round, Wolverhampton Wanderers will look to claim a second successive big name scalp when they host Premiership leaders Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup this weekend.

Paul Lambert’s side pulled off a shock victory at Anfield last month thanks to first half goals from Richard Stearman and Andreas Weimann, but their form has taken a turn for the worse after that victory. They’re yet to win in February and have lost three in a row in the Championship, one away to newly promoted Burton Albion and the other two at Molineux to Newcastle and Wigan. That leaves them just eight points above the drop zone

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