Manchester United And Leicester City Could Still Finish 4th & Fail To Qualify For Champions League

Manchester United and Leicester City are involved in a real tussle to finish in the top four this season, but one of them could finish fourth and still not get Champions League football.

The fight for the top four was already a scrappy affair before this weekend, then Chelsea and Leicester both lost and on Monday it was confirmed that Manchester City's UEFA ban had been overturned.

That means that there's no spot for fifth place in the league to creep into the Champions League on a technicality, but there might not even be room for fourth.

Should United or Leicester get the final spot, with the other getting third place and denying Chelsea, then there's an outside chance that fourth wouldn't be in the Champions League, if Chelsea won the competition this year and Wolves won the Europa League.

Winning either competition gets you added into next season's Champions League and with counties only being allowed a maximum for five entrants that would mean no place for fourth.

Chelsea's chances of winning the Champions League were severely dented by Bayern. Image: PA Images

Of course that scenario is highly unlikely because of the Blues' current situation in this season's edition of Europe's top club competition.

Frank Lampard's side lost 3-0 at home in the first leg of their last 16 tie against Bayern Munich, who have since gone on to win a league and cup double in Germany.

The Bundesliga champions are one of the favourites to become European champions so Chelsea's chances of overturning the deficit are very slim, but last season's Champions League taught us to rule nothing out.

Wolves side of the bargain might be more feasible and Nuno Espirito Santo's side will not be ruling out winning the Europa League.

They drew 1-1 away in Greece against Olympiakos in their last 16 first leg and should they make it through would play Roma or Sevilla in the quarters.

That's a tough draw but far from unthinkable they could get through, and might even meet United in the semi-finals, should Ole Solskjaer's team get past LASK and then either Istanbul Basaksehir or Copenhagen.

Chelsea's loss to Sheffield United on Saturday left them in danger of missing out on the top four, with games against Wolves and Liverpool to go, but they were helped out by Leicester losing to Bournemouth.

Brendan Rodgers' side will fall out of the top four should United beat Southampton on Monday night, and the Red Devils would go third for the first time this season, with just three games left.

Who do you think will finish in the top four? Let us know in the comments.

Topics: Manchester City, Football News, Leicester City, Chelsea, Europa League, Manchester United, UEFA, Premier League, Champions League, Wolves

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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