WCR Top 25 - May 16, 2023

It appears that every position in the finals of the UEFA continental competitions are still in play, with a lot of exciting matches coming up this week.  In domestic leagues, most titles are set by now, with Barcelona joining Napoli and Feyenoord as champions of their respective leagues, and Manchester City, Benfica and PSG on the verge of clinching.  Only the German Bundesliga is legitimately still in play, with a Bayern/Leipzig matchup this weekend being the most intriguing match.

There wasn’t much movement in the rankings this week.  Only two clubs moved up as many as two spots - Barcelona, who clinched the La Liga title this week, and Benfica, who moved within one victory of doing the same in Portugal’s Premeira League.  The biggest mover overall was AC Milan, who dropped four spots after 0-2 losses in both the Champions League and Serie A, both of which contributed to an increased chance of not qualifying for next season’s UCL.

The Top Ten remains the same, though Barça and Atlético moved a bit within it following opposite results in league play.  We also have a week with nobody moving in or out of the rankings, though Real Sociedad moved very close to making their debut.

As a note, all of our Top Ten clubs now have links below to extended highlights or condensed games of their matches from last week, so enjoy catching up on anything you missed!

All of the rankings are below.  If you don’t like the list, please feel free to check out our methodology page, which includes links to all of the source data we are using. 

1.  Manchester City (Eng) (125 pts) (5 first place votes) (LW 1) - I’m sure some people were surprised that City managed only a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid on Tuesday night, but it wasn’t completely unexpected - after all Real Madrid is Real Madrid and they were playing at home.  If Los Blancos could pull off the upset in Manchester this coming Wednesday night, however, it would truly be a surprise given how good City has been all season.  Speaking of how good they are, City was able to move within a victory of winning the Premier League title with a 3-0 win at Everton this weekend and a little help from Brighton, which they probably didn’t need.  Now, they can clinch the title with a victory over Chelsea at home on Sunday, provided Arsenal doesn’t hand it to them on Saturday.

2.  Bayern Munich (Ger) (119 pts) (LW 2) - Bayern did start a little faster than recent form this week, and they finished extremely strong, demolishing Schalke 04 by a 6-0 score on Saturday.  This allows them to maintain their one-point lead over Dortmund in the German Bundesliga with two matches remaining.  The tougher of those two matches, at least on paper, should be on Saturday against ranked RB Leipzig.  A silver lining for Bayern is that this match will take place at Allianz.

3.  Real Madrid (Esp) (113 pts) (LW 3) -The first leg of the UCL semifinals lived up to the hype.  City was the better club in the first half, but it was Madrid that scored a goal.  Madrid was better in the second half, but it was City, this time, that capitalized on an opportunity and the match finished 1-1.  The rematch will take place in Manchester on Wednesday night and will, of course, be must-see TV.  Domestically, a weakened-due-to-resting Real Madrid club took care of business in a 1-0 victory over Getafe at home.  Next up will be a match at Valencia next Sunday which will be much more important for Los Che Chotos than it will be for Los Blancos.

4. Barcelona (Esp) (108 points) (LW 6) - In a match that wasn’t nearly as close as the final tally might indicate, Barça dominated crosstown rivals Espanyol 4-2 to not only win the match, but to clinch their first La Liga title without Lionel Messi this millennium.  You have to go all the way back to the 1998-99 season to find one of those.  Barcelona’s final four matches are of little consequence to them, of course, but they will be to some of their opponents, and that is no truer than it will be on Saturday night when Barça hosts Real Sociedad, who just missed out on being on this week’s list and are desperately fighting off Villarreal for the final UCL spot to come out of La Liga.

5.  Liverpool (Eng) (106 pts) (LW 4) -The Reds’ march towards a Champions League spot continued this week with a 3-0 away victory over Leicester City.  That makes it seven wins in a row for Liverpool and it does not look like anything or anybody will be able to stop them.  They still need help from Newcastle and/or Manchester United, but they are doing their part by piling on the pressure.  This week’s match will not be easy, but Liverpool will still be favorites at home against Aston Villa.

6.  Arsenal (Eng) (98 points) (LW 5) - Arsenal’s hopes for winning the Premier League weren’t great to begin with, but they took a proverbial kick in the crotch this weekend.  Granted, beating Brighton isn’t the easiest task in the world, but the 0-3 loss means we likely have only until next Sunday until City takes the title - and that’s provided the Gunners can take points away from Nottingham Forest on Thursday, and that match will mean a lot to Forest seeing as they are still in the relegation hunt.  It’s been a great season and I hope it ends well as well for Arsenal.

7.  Napoli (Ita) (91 pts) (LW 7) - Napoli didn’t look particularly fearsome in their 0-2 loss to Monza this weekend.  The Italian champions might be taking it easy the rest of the season.  That is, at least, what Internazionale are hoping because the UCL semifinalists are heading south to take on Napoli on Sunday in what, at least talent-wise, should be one of the best matches of the weekend.

8. Inter Milan (Ita) (89 pts) (LW 9) - It was a good week for one of the Milanese teams this week.  Inter started red-hot against stadium rivals AC Milan, scoring twice early and coming close to scoring more.  Their 2-0 gained advantage from the first match will do them well when the teams do it all over again on Tuesday night to see who will advance to the UCL finals.  In domestic action, Inter also separated themselves by two more points from Milan and moved past Lazio into third place in Serie A with a 4-2 victory over Sassuolo that turned into a tougher match than expected.  This week’s match should be even tougher as Inter Milan travels to Napoli to take on the Scudetto winners on Sunday.  Inter Milan will be hoping that Napoli is just playing out the season since they have nothing more to win.

9.  Borussia Dortmund (Ger) (76 pts) (LW 10) - It did not take long at all for Dortmund to dominate a very lackadaisical Mönchengladbach club.  The event finished in a 5-2 victory over their fellow Borussian club, and the match wasn’t even as close as the score suggests.  The great result, however, still leaves Dortmund a point behind Bayern in the German Bundesliga and all Die Schwarzgelben can do is continue to do its best and hope for a Bayern Munich stumble.  Dortmund’s next test will be on Sunday at Augsburg.

10.  Atlético Madrid (Esp) (75 pts) (LW 8) - In a downright shocking result, Atlético lost for the first time since prior to the World Cup to anybody but Real Madrid or Barcelona, and it was a 0-1 result to last-place Elché that took place.  This helped Atlético move back down to third place, behind city rival Real Madrid, as well as drop two spots in our rankings.  Still, Atléti can clinch a Group Stage spot in next season’s UCL with a win or draw against Osasuna on Sunday.

11.  Paris St. Germain (Fra) (68 pts) (LW 12)

12.  Newcastle United (Eng) (66 pts) (LW 11)

13.  Manchester United (Eng) (66 pts) (LW 13)

14.  RB Leipzig (Ger) (54 pts) (LW 14)

15.  Benfica (Por) (52 pts) (LW 17)

16.  Porto (Por) (51 pts) (LW 16)

17.  Juventus (Ita) (48 pts) (LW 18)

18.  Brighton (Eng) (39 pts) (LW 19)

19.  AC Milan (Ita) (25 pts) (LW 15)

20. Chelsea (Eng) (20 pts) (LW 21)

21.  Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) (17 pts) (LW 20)

22.  Palmeiras (Bra) (16.7 pts) (LW 23)

23.  Aston Villa (Eng) (15 pts) (LW 24)

24.  Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) (12 pts) (LW 22)

25.  Feyenoord (Ned) (10 pts) (LW 25)

Also receiving points:  Real Sociedad (Esp) (10), RB Salzburg (Aut) (9), Brentford (Eng) (7), Sporting CP (Por) (7), Fluminense (Bra) (6.7), Ajax (Ned) (6), Roma (Ita) (6),  Lille (Fra) (6), Sevilla (Esp) (6), PSV Eindhoven (Ned) (5), Villarreal (Esp) (4), Zenit St. Petersburg (Rus) (1), Union Berlin (Ger) (1).