If Borussia Dortmund manage to qualify for the UEFA Champions League again, last season’s finalists have good chances to be in pot 2 for the next draw for the first time since the 2001/2002 campaign.

The Bundesliga is at the halfway point, and so are the European competitions. After the end of the group phase, the UEFA Champions League will resume with the knockout stages in February, with Borussia Dortmund facing Zenit St Petersburg from Russia in the last 16 round. BVB have a chance to accumulate further points in the club coefficient rankings. In Europe’s elite club competition teams are awarded a point for a draw and two points for a win, as well additional points for reaching the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.

The club coefficient rankings are based on the results of clubs competing in European competitions in the five previous seasons, plus 20% of the country coefficient over the same period. The coefficient is the sum of all points won from one association, divided by the number of teams participating in the two competitions.

Borussia Dortmund are currently on 16th place in the club coefficient rankings - for the first time since 2001 – and would therefore go into pot 2 (places 9 to 16) for the draw in next year’s competition. It would also improve BVB’s situation if clubs ahead of them in the rankings – for example AC Milan (currently 11th in Italy) or FC Valencia (8th in Spain) – fail to qualify for the Champions League.

But even 16th place is not yet assured as BVB are “chased“ by Manchester City (17th), Paris St. Germain (17th), Bayer Leverkusen (21th) or by Tottenham Hotspur (18th) who are still competing in the Europa League. The gap to Manchester City, Tottenham and PSG are only 4.0 and 4.4 points, respectively, while the two games against FC Zenit are also important as the Russian side could reduce the deficit to 0.2 points if they win both games against Borussia – and then leapfrog them in the rankings with a draw in the quarter-finals.

On the other hand, if BVB reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League they would keep the chasing pack at back and climb to 15th place.

By the way, for the past six years no other team has made such a big climb in the rankings – since 2008 BVB have moved up a whopping 93 places from 109th to 16th…