WCR Top 25 - May 23, 2023

It was a good week for Italian clubs, with Inter Milan, Roma and Fiorentina all reaching the finals of the European competitions.  Manchester City also had another great week, advancing to the final of the UEFA Champions League and clinching yet another Premier League title.  PSG has moved within a whisper of another Ligue 1 title, while the titles in Germany and Portugal are now assured to come down to the final matchday.  Make sure to follow our Scenarios/Previews of the final matchdays of all of the top leagues in Europe, found on YouTube and on our website.

Of the Top 8 from last week, only two picked up full points in all of their matches, so a week that could have seen a lot of movement didn’t see as much as anticipated. Only one team moved up three spots, that being Aston Villa who scored a huge 1-1 draw against Liverpool and allowed Newcastle United to clinch a Champions League spot last night.  Two spots was the biggest drop, belonging to PSG, and that wasn’t really their fault as much as it was due to the Magpies picking up four points and Leipzig upsetting Bayern Munich.

We had two replacements in our rankings.  Real Sociedad makes its debut in our rankings after their upset win over Barcelona, while Ajax moved back in at number 25 after a victory over Utrecht that kept their UCL hopes for next season alive.  The two clubs that fell out to make room for these two were Bayer Leverkusen and (finally) Tottenham Hotspur.

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) -The weeks just keep getting better for our top club.  City began the week by demonstrating why it has been a unanimous pick for number one of the WCR Top 25 for several weeks now by making a very good Real Madrid club look like a team about to be relegated from the Austrian Bundesliga in a 4-0 thunder-crush of the Spanish club to advance to the Champions League finals.  Then, with practically a whole new club, they were able to celebrate their Premier League title at home with a 1-0 win over Chelsea, a day after Arsenal had abandoned its claim to the title.  City has two road matches this week in league play, against Brighton on Wednesday and Brentford on Sunday, but look for them to save some energy for the FA Cup and Champions League finals in which they will participate in the following two weeks.

2.  Bayern Munich (Ger) (117 pts) (LW 2) - Bayern looked like they were cruising entering the middle of the second half, but a counterattack goal and a few penalties later and they found themselves losing 1-3 to RB Leipzig and surrendering the steering wheel of the German Bundesliga bus to Borussia Dortmund.  Bayern’s not dead yet, but now they need to beat Schalke 04 on Saturday and hope Mainz 05 can prevent Dortmund from winning the title at home on Saturday’s Matchday 34.

3.  Liverpool (Eng) (109 pts) (LW 5) -Liverpool remained alive for a 2023-24 Champions League spot, but their odds took a major turn for the worst by failing to pick up three points at home against Aston Villa, settling for a 1-1 draw.  They will be favored again next week to pick up three points, this time at relegation-bound and last place Southampton, but winning that will not be enough to send the Reds to the UCL without a lot of help.

4. Real Madrid (Esp) (106 pts) (LW 3) -It was a far from ideal week for Los Blancos.  After losing 0-4 to Manchester City to be unceremoniously removed from the ranks of clubs still alive in the Champions League, the club from the Spanish capital went on to lose 0-1 to Valencia in what was a very spirited match which saw Vini Jr. the subject of racist taunts at one point, and red carded out of the match at a different point.  To the extent they care about finishing second in the table above city-rivals Atlético, they have two chances this week to pick up additional points - Wednesday night at home against Rayo Vallecano, and then on the road against UEFA Europa league finalists Sevilla on Saturday.

5.  Barcelona (Esp) (103 points) (LW 4) - As is often the case after a club wraps up a league title early, Barça played rather uninspired football this weekend resulting in their first home loss of the season in a 1-2 defeat to Real Sociedad, who is fighting for Spain’s final UCL spot.  La Liga clubs still have three matches left, and two of those matchdays will take place this week.  As for Barcelona, they will travel to play Real Valladolid on Tuesday night and then host Mallorca on Sunday in their penultimate league match.

6.  Napoli (Ita) (100 pts) (LW 7) - By beating Inter Milan 3-1 at home on Sunday night, Napoli completed the season with at least one victory over every other club in Serie A for the first time in club history.  It’s good to see they are still playing hard, even after having won every trophy they are going to win this season.  Hopefully this will keep up this weekend when they travel to take on Bologna.

7.  Arsenal (Eng) (90 points) (LW 6) - This is the way Arsenal’s title dream ends.  This is the way Arsenal’s title dream ends.  This is the way Arsenal’s title dream ends.  Not with a bang but a 0-1 loss to Nottingham Forest, following a 0-3 humiliating loss to Brighton the previous week.  The Gunners will finish the season in second place, which I’m sure would have excited the most die-hard Arsenal fans at the beginning of the season if you told them it would happen, but the end of the season has been quite disappointing.  Speaking of the end of the season, Arsenal will be at home on Sunday against Wolverhampton to close out their overall successful 2022-23 campaign.

8. Inter Milan (Ita) (88 pts) (LW 8) - Inter Milan defeated intercity rivals AC Milan for the second straight week, this time by a 1-0 score, to advance to the final of the UEFA Champions League, where they will face Manchester City.  Domestically, they didn’t fare as well, playing short-handed for most of the match, they fell 1-3 to Scudetto winners Napoli to drop to fourth place in the Italian Serie A, just two points against that other Milanese club.  This week will be another big one for Internazionale, who will take on Fiorentina on Wednesday night in the final of the Coppa Italia.  On Saturday night, they will have to scrap with European competition-chasing Atalanta at the San Siro in another tough match against a top Italian club.

9.  Borussia Dortmund (Ger) (79 pts) (LW 9) - It took so long for them to score the first goal that I thought that Dortmund was going to blow yet another great opportunity, but once Die Schwarzgelben finally scored, they kept doing it and eventually outlasted Augsburg by a 3-0 score to take over the top spot in the German Bundesliga with only one match remaining.  That match will be at home against Mainz 05 on Saturday and it will give Borussia Dortmund a golden chance to end Bayern Munich’s 10-year run of Bundesliga titles.

10.  Atlético Madrid (Esp) (74 pts) (LW 10) - In their quest to pass Real Madrid for second place in La Liga, Atlético bounced back strong from their embarrassing Elché loss and handily defeated Osasuna 3-0 this weekend and have now clinched a spot in next season’s Champions League.  Atléti has two matches this week as the season nears the end, facing Espanyol in Barcelona on Wednesday before hosting Real Sociedad on Sunday.

11.  Newcastle United (Eng) (71 pts) (LW 12)

12.  RB Leipzig (Ger) (69 pts) (LW 14)

13.  Paris St. Germain (Fra) (69 pts) (LW 11)

14.  Manchester United (Eng) (69 pts) (LW 13)

15.  Porto (Por) (57 pts) (LW 16)

16.  Benfica (Por) (51 pts) (LW 15)

17.  Brighton (Eng) (35 pts) (LW 18)

18.  Juventus (Ita) (32 pts) (LW 17)

19.  AC Milan (Ita) (25 pts) (LW 19)

20. Aston Villa (Eng) (20 pts) (LW 23)

21.  Chelsea (Eng) (17 pts) (LW 20)

22.  Real Sociedad (Esp) (16 pts) (LW NR) 

23.  Palmeiras (Bra) (13.3 pts) (LW 22)

24.  Feyenoord (Ned) (11 pts) (LW 25)

25.  Ajax (Ned) (11 pts) (LW NR)

Also receiving points:  Brentford (Eng) (10), Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) (9), RB Salzburg (Aut) (9), Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) (8),Roma (Ita) (7),  Lille (Fra) (7), Villarreal (Esp) (6), Sevilla (Esp) (6), Lazio (Ita) (5), Sporting CP (Por) (2), Lens (Fra) (2), PSV Eindhoven (Ned) (2).