The best soccer team in Europe
Keith R. Thompson

With the final month of the 2007/08 season upon us we once again rank the top teams that are playing in Europe. This represents our final rank for the season, following the December, January February and March rankings.

 
As a reminder t
o properly evaluate the top teams within Europe we begin by considering the percent of points that they have accumulated relative to the maximum points available from those games they have played. Next we consider all matches played, both within domestic top league competition and against UEFA competition foes. Because the quality of opposition is stronger in UEFA Champions League play than it is in both UEFA Cup and domestic competition we weight matches played in the Champions League at twice as valuable as those in domestic competition, and weight UEFA Cup matches as 1.5 times as important as domestic competition play.

The following table shows the list of the top 20 teams in Europe ranked by their percentage of points earned in domestic and UEFA competitions through the end of April 2008.

Rank Team League Games Played Goal Diff. Total Points Max Points Ave. Points % Points Won PER
Score
1 Manchester United England 48 67 111 144 2.31 77.1%           97.9
2 FC Porto Portugal 36 49 86 108 2.39 79.6%           92.6
3 Chelsea England 48 49 104 144 2.17 72.2%           88.2
4 Inter Milan Italy 43 47 96 129 2.23 74.4%           86.0
5 Barcelona Spain 46 41 88 138 1.91 63.8%           83.3
6 Olympiacos Greece 38 36 82 114 2.16 71.9%           82.5
7 Arsenal England 46 51 95 138 2.07 68.8%           81.9
8 Roma Italy 45 35 92 135 2.04 68.1%           80.7
9 Liverpool England 48 53 91 144 1.90 63.2%           77.8
10 Real Madrid Spain 42 43 86 126 2.05 68.3%           77.0
11 Celtic Scotland 44 52 92 132 2.09 69.7%           76.5
12 Rangers Scotland 46 48 93 138 2.02 67.4%           76.4
13 Panathinaikos Greece 36 31 77 108 2.14 71.3%           76.4
14 Bayern Munich Germany 42 52 84 126 2.00 66.7%           73.8
15 Lyon France 43 34 83 129 1.93 64.3%           72.9
15 PSV Eindhoven Holland 43 36 82 129 1.91 63.6%           72.9
17 AEK Athens Greece 36 45 74 108 2.06 68.5%           71.3
18 Bordeaux France 41 27 81 123 1.98 65.9%           71.1
19 Everton England 44 34 83 132 1.89 62.9%           70.8
20 Villarreal Spain 40 19 78 120 1.95 65.0%           70.4
21 Zenit St Petersburg Russia 42 30 79 126 1.88 62.7%           69.8
  UEFA Champions League  
  UEFA Cup  
  No European competition                

See April 2008 rankings

See March 2008 ranking

See February 2008 ranking

See January 2008 ranking

See December 2007 ranking

© 2008 PER Sports.
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