Eurosport - Wed, 16 Jan 10:38:00 2008
Internazionale's defeat of struggling European champions and city rivals Milan helps them remain Europe's in-form side, as shown in eurosport.yahoo.com's Power Rankings.
We take into account both domestic and Champions League performances, plus the relative difficulty of each team's league, to find out who is the best team in Europe.
Arsenal have displaced chief rivals Manchester United in our rankings system as well as at the top of the Premier League table, shooting into second place behind Inter.
The Italian champions kept their place at the top thanks to the derby win just before Christmas and hammerings of Torino and Lazio prior to that.
Real Madrid's stunning victory in the Camp Nou over the festive period has been enough to move seven points clear at the top of La Liga, but Barcelona's jammy win on the island of Mallorca at the weekend ensured that Los Merengues' equally poxy victory at home to Zaragoza was not enough to move them above their fierce rivals. Still, Madrid continue to power up the list.
Sevilla have slipped back down the list despite their easy derby triumph over Betis at the weekend, having shot up the rankings themselves in recent months.
Turkish outfit Fenerbahce are also climbing thanks to their '5x coefficient' Champions League successes, joined in the top 20 now by more countries from minor nations: SPL side Rangers, Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk and Rosenborg of Norway, who completed a double European win over Valencia this season.
Werder Bremen, who joined former runaway leaders Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga on points recently, are back up to 14th after a blip.
1 (1) Internazionale - 25.15 pts
2 (3) Arsenal - 25.03
3 (2) Manchester United - 24.76
4 (4) Barcelona - 21.94
5 (5) Real Madrid - 21.39 continues
6 (6) Chelsea - 20.48
7 (8) Roma - 19.75
8 (11) Liverpool - 19.50
9 (7) Porto - 19.30
10 (9) Sevilla - 17.72 back down again
11 (10) Milan - 17.26
12 (15) Fenerbahce - 17.15 contines
13 (12) Lyon - 16.54
14 (18) Werder Bremen - 15.97 back up after slip
15 (14) Olympiacos - 15.97
16 (-) Benfica - 15.86
17 (-) Rangers - 15.45
18 (-) Shakhtar Donetsk - 14.74
19 (19) Valencia - 14.38
20 (-) Rosenborg - 14.23
HOW IT WORKS
Scores are based on points per game in domestic league and European games.
Domestic points per game are multiplied by the league coefficient - either 3, 4 or 5 - with teams in stronger leagues getting more credit.
European victories are counted as three points for a win whether in league stage or not. They are all multiplied by a coefficient of 5.
League coefficients:
England, Spain, Italy = 5
Germany, Portugal, France = 4
Others = 3
Example: Internazionale
43 points from 17 Premier League games = 2.53 points per game.
Multiplied by league coefficient of five - 2.53 x 5 = 12.65
15 points from 6 Champions League games (including qualifying) = 2.50 points per game.
Multiplied by European coefficient of five - 12.50
Total score = 12.65 + 12.50 = 25.15