PAOK and Olympiacos continue to raise the flag high and Greece maintains hopes for a rise in the UEFA standings. What results do they need to have five teams in Europe in the 2025/26 season?
March 14th was a great night for Greek football. PAOK and Olympiacos did not have the chances on their side (especially the red and white ones) from the first matches, but Dikefalos with 5-1 against Dinamo Zagreb and Piraeus with 6-1 against Maccabi, all great results, they brought it somersault and continue in the “8” of the Conference League.
The two teams keep Greece alive in the UEFA standings. In fact, we are the country with the lowest coefficient in the ranking that has teams in the quarter-finals and the only one apart from the Big – 5 countries (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France) that has at least two teams. We had many years to experience such performances and they remind us of previous years when Greece was high in the ranking table.
But due to the low flights in recent years, Greece has lost places in the UEFA standings as a result of which it is currently in 17th place and two away from getting two teams into the Champions League.
SPORT24 presents you how Greece can be placed in a better position through PAOK and Olympiakos than the current season.
These are what the two teams in the Conference League must achieve
Greece currently has 29,525 points and in front of them Israel in 16th place has 31,125 and Denmark in 15th place 31,450, but both were left without a team. The distance of our country from the 15th place is 2,000 points, which it can find in five victories. How can he achieve them?
The highest number of points that Olympiacos or PAOK can offer if they win the cup with the absolute number of victories is 2,400 points.
In the quarter-finals each win is awarded 2,000 points and each draw 1,000. The same applies to the semi-finals and the final, but in these stages Greece will get a bonus of 1,000 points for each qualification from here on. And the points are divided by five, which were also the representatives of the country at the beginning of the season, and then added to the harvest.
The 15th place scenario with these data seems difficult, as even if a Greek team wins the Conference League this may not be enough to raise us to 15th place.
The worst scenario in the event of a… victory is that Olympiacos or PAOK will qualify with one win and one loss (or two draws and penalties) and in the final they will send the match to penalties, so in the UEFA rating the match will count as a tie. This truly extreme scenario offers Greece 1,400 points (including bonuses). Therefore, if the other Greek team does not qualify for the semi-finals, it is impossible for Greece to overtake Denmark.
Greece is chasing this position to have five teams in Europe and two tickets to the Champions League. In the 17th place it is now it has a ticket for the Champions League and the Europa League and two for the Conference League.
But if you consider where Greece started and where it ended, this season it achieved something really big. With harvests like this year’s, it doesn’t just hit 15, but 10. As long as it continues in the new year, of course.