'UEFA rankings: Portugal just behind Netherlands and France'

The third round of the Champions League put Portugal slightly behind the Netherlands and France in the UEFA rankings.

Portugal earned just a point thanks to FC Porto's 4-1 win over Antwerp.

Benfica and Sporting Braga suffered defeats at home to Real Sociedad (0-1) and Real Madrid (1-2) respectively.

The final tally showed that each win brings two points for the ranking.

So Portugal, who are represented by six clubs in the 2023/24 season, earned 0.333 points thanks to FC Porto's win.

While the Netherlands earned two points for Feyenoord's 3-1 win over Lazio and one point for PSV's 1-1 draw with Lens in this round of the Champions League.

These three points, separated by five'. 'Dutch clubs in UEFA for the 2023/24 season, added 0.6 points to the Netherlands' ranking.

France also picked up a win (PSG over Milan 3-0) and the aforementioned Lens draw with PSV.

Unlike the Netherlands, however, France is represented by six clubs in the 2023/24 season, and this Champions League round earned it an additional 0.5 points.

So Portugal (7th in the ranking) have lost the advantage to the Dutch and the French, while the Netherlands (5th) have slightly increased their lead over their two closest pursuers.

In terms of 2023/24 figures only, Portugal continue to have the worst performance with 4,333 points compared to 4,750 for France and 5,800 for the Netherlands.

This Thursday one'.

Sporting travel to visit Rakov in the Europa League.

As for the French, Marseille host AEK in the Europa League, Toulouse play Liverpool, while Rennes travel to visit Panathinaikos and Lille take on Slovan Bratislava in the Conference League.

The Netherlands are represented by Ajax, who play Brighton in the Europa League, and AZ Alkmaar, who host Aston Villa in the Conference League.