Poland held onto 10th place in the UEFA country ranking on Thursday after adding 0.3 points as three of its clubs suffered European elimination.
Raków Częstochowa lost 3-2 at home after extra time against Croatian side Hajduk Split, falling 4-5 on aggregate to be knocked out of the UEFA Conference League play-offs. The result leaves Poland with only two teams competing in European tournaments for the rest of the season.
Jagiellonia Białystok secured a place in the UEFA Europa League by defeating Iberia 2-1, completing a 6-1 aggregate win following their earlier first-leg victory. Lech Poznań also reached the Europa League main stage after a 2-2 draw against Swiss team Thun, advancing 9-2 on aggregate.
Górnik Zabrze exited in the fourth qualifying round after a 4-1 away loss to French club AS Monaco, resulting in a 7-3 aggregate defeat for the side managed by head coach Michal Gasparik. GKS Katowice had already been eliminated in the third qualifying round.
The elimination of Raków is considered pivotal for Poland's ranking outlook. Both remaining Polish clubs will play in the Europa League, a higher-tier competition with tougher opposition than the Conference League. Last season, four Polish teams competed in the Conference League and generated a record number of coefficient points for the country.
Poland failed to achieve its minimum objective for the qualification rounds. With fewer active teams, Polish clubs face a harder path to gather ranking points compared to their closest rivals in the UEFA standings.
Czechia and Greece narrow coefficient gap
Czechia remains 11th in the UEFA ranking and sits less than half a point behind Poland after collecting 0.4 match points on Thursday alongside bonus points from Champions League entry. Slavia Prague earned six bonus points for qualifying for the Champions League, which added 1.2 coefficient points to Czechia's country total.
In Europa League play-off action, Viktoria Plzen beat Serbian team Crvena Zvezda Belgrade 5-1 after extra time. In the Conference League, Jablonec defeated Scottish side Rangers on penalties to progress, while Hradec Kralove was eliminated following an extra-time loss to Panathinaikos. Czechia successfully qualified four teams into European main-stage competitions.
12th-placed Greece reduced nearly half of its gap to Poland by adding 1.4 points overall across mid-week fixtures. AEK Athens earned 1.4 points on Wednesday through a victory over Bulgarian side Levski Sofia, which was worth 0.2 match points, and a Champions League qualification bonus worth 1.2 points.
Greece added another 0.4 points on Thursday as OFI Crete beat CSKA Sofia in Europa League qualifying and Panathinaikos knocked out Hradec Kralove. Although PAOK lost to Norwegian club Brann to exit the Conference League, Greece will also have four clubs competing in European main stages.
Norway moved past Denmark into 13th place in the UEFA coefficient standings, though Norwegian clubs remain approximately seven points behind Poland.
Champions League access and UEFA country rankings
Maintaining 10th place in the UEFA country ranking at the end of the season grants the Ekstraklasa champion direct qualification into the UEFA Champions League league phase for the 2028-29 season. Finishing in the top 12 ensures that Poland's domestic champion enters Champions League qualifying at the play-off stage, guaranteeing at least a spot in the Europa League main stage.
The UEFA Europa League main stage begins on September 16 and 17, while the UEFA Conference League starts in mid-October.
The UEFA country ranking after Thursday's European fixtures:
- 1. England: 102.019 points (9/9 clubs active)
- 2. Italy: 87.732 points (7/7 clubs active)
- 3. Spain: 82.493 points (8/8 clubs active)
- ...
- 9. Turkey: 49.675 points (4/5 clubs active)
- 10. Poland: 45.125 points (2/5 clubs active)
- 11. Czechia: 44.725 points (4/5 clubs active)
- 12. Greece: 43.812 points (4/5 clubs active)
- 13. Norway: 38.612 points (4/5 clubs active)
- 13. Denmark: 38.306 points (4/4 clubs active)
