Sir Jim Ratcliffe's potential Erik ten Hag replacement hands Manchester United Champions League blow

Roberto De Zerbi's Brighton and Hove Albion and David Moyes' West Ham have handed Manchester United a blow as they attempt to qualify for next season's Champions League.

England could potentially have an extra Champions League qualifying spot this season thanks to UEFA's format change for the competition. From the 2024/25 campaign, the Champions League group stages shall be expanding from 32 to 36 teams.

Two of the extra spots shall be awarded to the two countries that rank highest in the UEFA's coefficients ranking. This ranking is determined by how teams from each nation perform in the three European competitions - the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference League.

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Before Thursday's round of matches England and Spain were set to receive the two extra spots with Italy and Germany the two nearest rivals. However, when the rankings are updated on Friday morning, this could have all changed.

De Zerbi, who MEN Sport understands is one of INEOS' targets to replace Erik ten Hag in the summer, could only watch on as his Brighton side were beaten 4-0 by AS Roma. Jose Mourinho's former club won thanks to goals from Paulo Dybala, Romelu Lukaku, Gianluca Mancini and Bryan Cristante.

Former United boss Moyes was unable to do the Reds any favours either as West Ham fell to a 1-0 defeat in Freiburg as Michael Gregoritsch bagged the only goal of the game. There was better news from Czechia though as Liverpool beat Sparta Prague 5-1 to try and offset the negative results from the Seagulls and Iron.

Meanwhile in the Europa Conference League, Ajax and Aston Villa both ended their fixture with