Brighton and West Ham deal Man Utd major blow with Europa League defeats
Manchester United's hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League have been hit by a fresh blow.
The Red Devils have endured a dreadful season and currently sit sixth in the Premier League, 11 points adrift of Aston Villa in fourth. That means their only chance of being included in Europe's top club competition is the extra place UEFA is handing one league.
As part of their changes to the Champions League's format, the number of teams taking part in the group stages will jump from 32 to 36. Two of those extra spots will go to the two countries that rank highest in UEFA's coefficients standings.
The ranking is determined by how teams from each nation fare in UEFA's three competitions: the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League. Heading into Thursday's games, England were set to receive one of the two places.
Spain were scheduled to get the other, with Italy and Germany their two nearest rivals. But Brighton's hammering at Roma and West Ham's narrow defeat at Freiburg has seen England drop down those rankings.
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The Europa League last 16 tie at the Stadio Olimpico was Brighton's first European knockout match. But their hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals are slim after two defensive errors allowed Roma to take total control.
Paulo Dybala handed the Serie A giants an early lead after the Seagulls failed to deal with a long ball forward. They then fell further behind when Romelu Lukaku capitalised on a poor touch from Lewis Dunk and fired in just before half-time.
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Brighton were thrashed by Roma in the first leg of their Europa League Last 16 clash (Anadolu via Getty Images)But they fell further behind when Lewis Dunk's poor touch was pounced on and punished by Romelu Lukaku just before half-time. Things got even worse for the Premier League side after the break when Gianluca Mancini slid in a third, before Bryan Cristante completed the rout.
Former United boss David Moyes also did his old side no favours as his West Ham team were defeated in Freiburg. The Hammers missed several chances to take the lead and were punished nine minutes from time.
Michael Gregoritsch came off the bench to tap in Roland Sallai's mis-hit shot. Moyes' men thought they had a penalty in injury time, but after a long VAR check, it was judged that Noah Wisshaupt had not committed a handball.
The updated coefficient rankings were published on Friday morning, with England dropping to third place. While they have more points than Italy or Germany, those two nations have more teams in the knockout stages.
That means the Premier League are now playing catch-up when it comes to the extra Champions League spots, potentially costing United, who are sixth, and Tottenham, who sit fifth.
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