{"id":691604,"date":"2026-05-24T14:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691604\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:06:17","slug":"liverpool-bournemouth-have-scenario-to-set-up-extra-39th-game-for-champions-league-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691604\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool, Bournemouth have scenario to set up extra 39th game for Champions League spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most of the final day scenarios for Liverpool and Bournemouth are relatively simple.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s one, though, that could send the Premier League table, and its Champions League qualification, into pretty much unprecedented territory.<\/p>\n<p>A specific outcome could send Liverpool and Bournemouth into an extra 39th game to determine which club gets to play Champions League football next season.<\/p>\n<p>Liverpool enters Sunday fifth in the table, on 59 points.<\/p>\n<p>Bournemouth enters the day with 56 points.<\/p>\n<p>Liverpool hosts Brentford, while Bournemouth heads to Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n<p>And it could get crazy.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/football\/tottenham-hotspur\/news\/what-tottenham-needs-happen-stay-avoid-relegation-final-day-scenarios\/34004adcaccaa331aa67c9f3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">What Tottenham needs for safety<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Final day 39th game scenario for Liverpool, Bournemouth<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7297884\/2026\/05\/23\/premier-league-table-final-day-permutations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Athletic&#8217;s Mark Carey provided<\/a> this great explanation in an article this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing that would need to happen is Liverpool to lose and Bournemouth to win. That brings them level on 59 points.<\/p>\n<p>Goal difference becomes the first tiebreaker, and Liverpool enters the day with a six-goal edge. So the Liverpool loss and Bournemouth win would have to combine to be lopsided.<\/p>\n<p>If Bournemouth makes up the goal difference gap and evens that, then goals scored is the next tiebreaker. Liverpool has a five-goal edge there.<\/p>\n<p>So, for example, if Bournemouth won 5-0, and Liverpool lost 0-1, that turns both categories into a tie. That means 6-1, 1-2 and every addition beyond in that fashion does the same.<\/p>\n<p>Ties in all those categories bring it to head-to-head record, and these sides split the series this season. And they had the same number of away goals (2), the next tiebreaker.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the whole list. Beyond that, it&#8217;s a 39th game at a neutral site.<\/p>\n<p>Those who root for chaos can certainly root for that.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0Why Gio Reyna made the USMNT squad over Diego Luna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of the final day scenarios for Liverpool and Bournemouth are relatively simple. There&#8217;s one, though, that could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-691604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}