WCR Top 25 - March 21, 2023

World Club Rankings - Top 25 - March 21, 2023

We have a new number one here in the WCR Top 25 Clubs in the World, and there can be no doubt about the reason why.  Winning a Champions League match and an FA Cup match by a combined thirteen goals, while the team above you loses a match and drops into second place in its domestic league, would force any club a little higher in the charts, and Manchester City only had one more spot to move into.

We also have a debutante in the Top Ten as UCL quarterfinalist Benfica moves into a spot that was held by RB Leipzig.  Leipzig’s horrible week, in which it lost two matches by a combined eight goals (yes, they were involved in one of the Manchester City massacres) makes room for the top club in the Liga Portugal Primeira Division.

If you haven’t noticed it was German clubs that gave up the Number One spot and the Top Ten spot.  Following that trend, it was also a German club, Union Berlin, that fell out of our Top 25, following their humiliation at the hands of Union St.Gilloise.  That makes room for Glasgow's own Celtic, a club that is completely dominating the Scottish Premiership.

The bottom three clubs in our rankings have all qualified due to having a Top 20 ranking in one of the five data ranking systems that we use to create our countdown:  FiveThirtyEight,  Club ELO, Euro Club Index, Football Database, and Opta Power Rankings, even though those clubs aren’t in the Top 25 in any of the other systems.  (The full methodology is available here.)  The fact that we get such wide ranging results using the exact same data sources shows how important setting up the formulas can be and is the reason we try to use a varied set of data in our calculations.  We will use the international break to see if we can find some additional resources that would be helpful in our rankings.

World Club Rankings - Top 25 - March 21, 2023

1.  Manchester City (Eng) (123 pts) (3 first place votes) (LW 2) - One week, two matches, 13-0 total score for Manchester City.  I’m sure most people were expecting City to get by Leipzig at home to advance in the Champions League, but I doubt many people would have put money on them doing it by a 7-0 score.  They then nearly doubled the effort, defeating Burnley 6-0 in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.  WIll it continue after the break?  Dunno.  City will be home for the third straight match, but will be hosting Liverpool on April 1, which should provide a tougher matchup than the two they had this week.

2.  Bayern Munich (Ger) (120 pts) (1 first place vote) (LW 1) - In a match that should be watched by everybody that hates VAR, Bayer Leverkusen had two yellow cards given to the same player for diving turned around and changed to penalty kicks thanks to the video review.  The difference resulted in a possible 1-0 victory turn into a 1-2 loss for Bayern Munich, knocking them out of the top spot in the WCR Top 25 and the German Bundesliga.  It won’t take them long to get a chance to at least get the Bundesliga lead back, however, as they will play the club that passed them, Borussia Dortmund, on Saturday, April 1, fresh off of the international break.

3.  Napoli (Ita) (108 pts) (1 first place vote) (LW 6) - Napoli completed their UCL domination over German club Eintracht Frankfurt with a 3-0 victory at midweek to advance to the quarterfinals of the continental tournament.  Without a letdown over the weekend, Napoli continued dominating, crushing Torino 4-0 in an away match to extend its Serie A lead to 19 points over new second-place club Lazio.  Napoli will get a preview of its Champions League tie when it faces AC Milan in a Serie A match on the Sunday night following the international break

4.  Real Madrid (Esp) (108 pts) (LW 3) - Real Madrid was able to beat Liverpool 1-0 at midweek to complete their 6-2 aggregate dismantling in the UEFA Champions League, where they are moving on to face Chelsea in the next round.  It’s a good thing they still have that to look forward to, too, because their 1-2 loss at Barcelona on Sunday night pretty much guarantees they will not be successfully defending their La Liga title this season.  Real returns to action on the Sunday after the international break (April 2) at home against Real Valladolid.

5.  Barcelona (Esp) (106 points) (LW 4) - Having already been eliminated from European competition, Barcelona had only one match this week, but what a match it was!  As noted just above, Barcelona used a late goal to defeat Real Madrid 2-1 on Sunday night, giving them a twelve-point lead in La Liga’s Primera Division, pretty much cementing another domestic title.  On the Saturday night after the international break, they will try to extend their lead when they visit lowly Elche in domestic league action.

6.  Arsenal (Eng) (103 points) (LW 5) - We weren’t shocked, but we were of course surprised that Arsenal could manage only a 1-1 draw at home against Sporting CP, which led to their defeat via penalty kicks and elimination from the Europa League competition.  They continued their good run in the Premier League against weaker competitions.  With a 4-1 defeat of Crystal Palace, the Gunners have won six league matches in a row, by a 19-5 combined score.  We expect that to continue after the break, when Arsenal hosts Leeds on Saturday next.

7.  Liverpool (Eng) (98 pts) (LW 7) - Liverpool did not have a Premier League match this weekend, as their scheduled match against Fulham was canceled to allow Fulham to participate in the FA Cup.  They did play one match in the past week, however, falling 0-1 to Real Madrid to complete their descent from Champions League highs through an eighth-final elimination.  It won’t be any easier after the international break as they will face off against top ranked Manchester City on April 1 at Etihad Stadium - only to be followed by Chelsea and Arsenal in the following week.

8.  Paris St. Germain (Fra) (86 pts) (LW 8) - Perhaps it’s boredom?  I don’t know.  Knocked out of the UCL and the Coupe de France, all PSG has left to play for this year is the Ligue 1 title, and they are comfortably in charge of that.  Even with this weekend’s 0-2 loss to Rennes at Parc des Princes, PSG has a seven point lead over second-place Marseille with only ten matches to go.  I guess it’s time for them to try out some lesser-used players and see who will be involved in what could prove to be a major overhaul over the summer.

9.  Manchester United (Eng) (83 pts) (LW 9) - United played in a pair of cup matches this week.  Their tie with Real Betis was pretty much decided even before they went to Seville and beat the Spanish club 1-0 to earn the right to play the other team from that city, Sevilla, in the quarterfinals of the Europa League.  The FA Cup quarterfinal was much more dramatic until Fulham lost all sense of discipline, earned a handful of well-deserved red cards and gave up three unanswered goals to allow the Red Devils to advance to play Brighton in the semifinals.  On the Sunday after the break, United will travel to St. James’ Park to play what should be an exciting match against Newcastle United.

10.  Benfica (Por) (72 pts) (LW 11) - Benfica moves into our Top Ten in a week that saw it extend its Primeira Division lead to ten points over second place Porto with nine matches to go via a 5-1 thrashing of Vitoria de Guimaraes at home on Saturday night.  After the break, Benfica will travel to Vila do Conde to take on Rio Ave, which will serve as a warm up for matches against Porto and Inter Milan, which will follow in the ten days after the Rio Ave match.

11.  Borussia Dortmund (Ger) (63 pts) (LW 14)

12.  Chelsea (Eng) (61 pts) (LW 13)

13.  Inter Milan (Ita) (60 pts) (LW 12)

14.  RB Leipzig (Ger) (58 pts) (LW 10)

15.  Atletico Madrid (Esp) (58 pts) (LW 15)

16.  Juventus (Ita) (50 pts) (LW 19)

17.  Porto (Por) (46 pts) (LW 16)

18.  Newcastle United (Eng) (45 pts) (LW 18)

19.  Brighton (Eng) (38 pts) (LW 21)

20.  Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) (31 pts) (LW 17)

21.  Ajax (Ned) (23 pts) (LW 22)

22.  AC Milan (Ita) (22 pts) (LW 20)

23.  Palmeiras (Bra) (15 pts) (LW 23)

24.  RB Salzburg (Aut) (8 pts) (LW 25)

25.  Celtic (Sco) (7 pts) (LW NR)

Also receiving votes:  Lille (Fra) (6), Lazio (Ita) (5), Sporting CP (Por) (5), Feyenoord (Ned) (4), Brentford (Eng) (4), Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) (4),  Roma (Ita) (4), Union Berlin (Ger) (3),   Real Betis (Ita) (3), Aston Villa (Eng) (1)