{"id":3558,"date":"2026-04-08T07:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2026-04-08T07:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:56:45","slug":"man-utd-and-liverpool-handed-massive-champions-league-boost-thanks-to-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3558","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd and Liverpool handed massive Champions League boost thanks to rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<h2 class=\"LeadText_lead-text__wd_PA __className_ac806a\" data-testid=\"leadtext\">Arsenal&#8217;s 1-0 win over Sporting CP confirms Premier League will get five Champions League places for 2026\/27 season, with Man Utd, and Liverpool set to benefit<\/h2>\n<div class=\"Byline_byline-container__K_Owl\" data-testid=\"byline\"><span class=\"Byline_byline-content-wrapper__Imque\" data-testid=\"byline-content\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"Byline_author-badge-date-wrapper__Q7jj1\">\n<div class=\"Byline_author-and-badge-wrapper__2dsv1\">\n<div class=\"Authors_authors-container__wVWas\" data-testid=\"byline-author\" data-tmdatatrack=\"author\" style=\"--authors-by:&quot;By&quot;\"><span><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35 __className_09e96c\">Kieran King<\/strong> Senior Sports Writer<\/span><span>  and <span><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Will Schofield<\/strong><\/span>  Senior Sports Reporter<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"\" data-testid=\"byline-publishedDate\">22:40, 07 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"36981837\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have sealed an extra Champions League spot for the Premier League\" loading=\"eager\" sizes=\"(max-width: 508px) 508px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36981837.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/0_Mikel-Arteta-56.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36981837.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s508\/0_Mikel-Arteta-56.jpg 508w, https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36981837.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615\/0_Mikel-Arteta-56.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36981837.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/0_Mikel-Arteta-56.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have sealed an extra Champions League spot for the Premier League\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Mikel Arteta&#8217;s Arsenal have sealed an extra Champions League spot for the Premier League<cite aria-label=\"Image: Getty Images\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea have received a significant boost in their chase for a Champions League spot, following confirmation that the Premier League will be granted FIVE places in next season&#8217;s competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Arsenal&#8217;s 1-0 victory over Sporting CP on Tuesday has secured an additional place for the Premier League, with the top five teams automatically qualifying for the 2026\/27 Champions League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Currently, this would mean Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool would secure Champions League football next season. Chelsea, currently in sixth place, are still in contention, while Brentford (seventh) and Everton (eighth) could also mount a late challenge.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"image-group\"><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX false\" data-testid=\"imageembed-36977484\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"36977484\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.55\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 1: Harry Maguire of Manchester United celebrates the first goal during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Fulham at Old Trafford on February 1, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Visionhaus\/Getty Images)\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(max-width: 458px) 458px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36977484.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/2_GettyImages-2259451785.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36977484.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s458b\/2_GettyImages-2259451785.jpg 458w, https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36977484.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/2_GettyImages-2259451785.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/article36977484.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/2_GettyImages-2259451785.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"Man Utd have been handed a huge boost\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Man Utd have been handed a huge boost<cite aria-label=\"Image: Visionhaus\/Getty Images\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: Visionhaus\/Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">JOIN US ON FB!<\/strong><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thedailystarsport#\" rel=\"nofollow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">  Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Prior to Arsenal&#8217;s match against Sporting, the Premier League needed just one draw to secure the extra spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">With Liverpool set to face Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, and Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace all playing on Thursday, there was a high likelihood that the additional place would be secured this week, reports <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/sport\/football\/news\/breaking-man-utd-liverpool-chelsea-36981480\" rel=\"follow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">the Mirror<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">And Arsenal have now clinched it for the Premier League with a 1-0 win against Sporting in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The Gunners travelled to the Jose Alvalade Stadium aiming to gain an advantage to take back to north London and edge closer to the semi-finals of Europe&#8217;s premier club competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Despite not delivering their most memorable performance, Mikel Arteta&#8217;s side managed to secure a narrow victory as Kai Havertz netted the winner in stoppage time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Gabriel Martinelli&#8217;s pass located Havertz in a pocket of space within the box and the German remained cool-headed before tucking the ball into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">This outcome has put the Gunners in a commanding position to cement their spot in the semi-final, ahead of next Wednesday&#8217;s second leg at the Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">If the Gunners progress, they will square off against either Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals at the end of this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal&#8217;s 1-0 win over Sporting CP confirms Premier League will get five Champions League places for 2026\/27 season, with Man Utd, and Liverpool set to benefit Kieran King Senior Sports Writer and Will Schofield Senior Sports Reporter 22:40, 07 Apr 2026 Mikel Arteta&#8217;s Arsenal have sealed an extra Champions League spot for the Premier League(Image: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}