Aston Villa crushed Nottingham Forest 4-0 at home and qualified for the Europa League final. This is a positive development for whoever among AEK, PAOK, Olympiacos finishes second in the championship.
If Unai Emery's team wins the title against Freiburg in Istanbul, it means that the second-placed team in Greece will avoid significant teams in the Champions League qualifiers. Andreas Dimatos analyzed the data:
"The possibility of Aston Villa winning the Europa League in the Istanbul final creates favorable conditions for the second-placed team in the Greek championship in the non-champions' qualifying round of the Champions League!
On the one hand, it will send directly to the League Phase the team with the highest coefficient among the 11 teams in the League Path, which will be the second-placed team in the Portuguese championship, Benfica or Sporting, who will no longer be a potential opponent!
Also, the 2 teams (out of 6) in the second qualifying round with the highest coefficient will advance to the third qualifying round without playing a match, securing a ticket to the Europa League even if they are eliminated there!
If PAOK finishes second, Bodo will logically be followed by Fenerbahce, and the Dikefalos will be among the 2 seeded teams in the second qualifying round, most likely along with Celtic!
AEK, as second, will be unseeded with potential opponents Celtic and Sturm Graz, according to current data!
A necessary condition for all this is not only for Aston Villa to win the Europa League, but also to finish in the top four of the Premier League.
If they finish fifth, then they will use the holder's spot, and England will send their 6th Premier League team to the Champions League!
With the penalty save in stoppage time, Rayo's goalkeeper definitively sent the 5th team of La Liga to the Champions League... Spain can no longer lose this year's second place to Germany!"