Annus horribilis for tricolor clubs in European Cups.
The last representative of France, PSG was eliminated on Tuesday by Manchester City in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
If France will still have to wait to win a third European competition in its history after the successes of OM in C1 (1993) and PSG in C2 (1996), the results of all French clubs for several seasons are worrying. .
This season, France has even made a fool of itself with its UEFA coefficient which determines the number of places in the European Cup each year.
With an average of 7.9 points, the French football sign, in fact, its worst performance since the new calculations of the index in 2004-2005.
He scores fewer points than Scottish, Dutch and Portuguese clubs.
Alone, PSG managed to collect more points than ... the other five French representatives combined.
But the capital club ended its European journey with three consecutive defeats (0-1 in the quarter-final second leg against Bayern Munich, then 1-2 and 2-0 against Manchester City).
For its first steps in C1, Rennes only collected a draw and 5 defeats while OM did little better with 1 success and 5 losses.
At the lower level, in the Europa League, the French clubs have gained France only 4.2 UEFA points in 2021, less than the average of Greek, Swiss, Belgian, Austrian, Portuguese, Scottish and Ukrainian clubs, not to mention obviously the Big 4 (England, Spain, Germany and Italy).
Stade de Reims left the competition in the third qualifying round against the modest Hungarians Fehervar and Nice failed to make it through the group stage (one victory and 5 losses).
Lille, for its part, had a brilliant group stage but Jonathan Ikoné's partners lost two times 2-1 against Ajax Amsterdam in the round of 16.
With two qualified for the final stages of C1 and C3, France presented its worst record for 10 years.
This season, France has demoted to 8th place in the UEFA coefficient and ranks 5th over the last 5 seasons.
This distance duel against Portugal is very important for this 5th place in the general classification of nations because it offers three qualifying places for the Champions League and three for the Europa League.
It will therefore be necessary to stop the slide quickly, from the next European campaign, that of all the dangers for French clubs.
