Newcastle United's Champions League hopes take crucial blow following semi-final results

Newcastle United's hopes of playing UEFA Champions League football took a major hit last night after Germany bagged the final coefficient place.

Due to England's poor performance in Europe this season coupled up with the success of other countries, the Premier League will only have four teams in the Champions League next season.

Italy have taken first spot in the Coefficient, meaning they will have the extra Champions League place as the tournament adopts its new format which will see an extra four teams in the new "league stage" from the 2024/25 season.

As the race for Europe heats up, it looks as if it will be Aston Villa that seal fourth place despite Spurs having two games in hand.

Image: Getty

Can Newcastle still qualify for the Champions League?

No, Newcastle officially cannot mathematically qualify for Europe's top competition next season. It would have been a pretty tough task anyway.

The Magpies are 14 points adrift from Villa with four games to play so the highest position they can finish now is fifth but even that will be difficult.

Newcastle are seven points behind Spurs, the Whites have a game in hand on the Toon as well so Newcastle would effectively need to win all of their remaining games and hope that results don't go the way of Spurs to reach fifth.

What chance does Newcastle have for European football next season?

The possibility for European football is high for Newcastle. The Magpies currently sit seventh in the table, four points ahead of West Ham, five ahead of Chelsea albeit having played a game more.

I'd say Eddie Howe has three fingers on it. Not one hand, three fingers.

The winner of the FA Cup is given a spot in the Europa League, the finalists are Manchester City and Manchester United. Ideally, Man City need to win that to give Newcastle the opportunity to play Europa League football next season.

Failing that, it would be the Europa Conference League which can be achieved by finishing seventh or winning the League Cup.

I think it's nailed on that the Magpies will get Conference League football at least. But Europa League football would be nice.