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The straight season is approaching its finish not only in the most powerful European leagues, where the most famous clubs are fighting for champion titles and tickets to next year's European club tournaments, but also in the second leagues of those countries, where there is a no less intense battle for the opportunity to be among the strongest again. Let's briefly review the situation in the strongest second leagues.
England. "Coca-Cola Championship"
Undoubtedly, in the most powerful and popular second league in the world, the battle is not for anything, but for a ticket to the often strongest league in the world called the "Premiership". Currently, the former "Man Utd" stars led by Roy Keane at "Sunderland" have had an unsuccessful start to the championship - they lost the first four matches, but in 2007 they did not lose a single game and have excellent chances to become champions.
Interesting is that according to the calculations of "Sunderland" president Niall Quinn, the return to the highest league would be worth almost 100 million euros for his club.
For the two guaranteed tickets to the "Premiership", "Sunderland" is also competing with the teams "Birmingham" and "Derby". However, one of them will have to play playoff games against three other teams, and the winner will get the third ticket to the "Premiership". Currently in fourth place is "Preston", just one point behind them are the teams "WBA" and "Wolverhampton", and even lower in the standings are the hopeful teams that are still not losing hope of catching the departing train such as "Stoke", "Southampton", "Colchester", "Sheffield Wednesday" and "Cardiff" clubs.
There are three rounds left until the end of the championship.
Italy. "Serie B"
In Italy, the famous "Juventus" from Turin is living much more calmly - last season, due to a scandal of arranged matches, they were relegated to a lower league and started the season with a points deficit, but the "Old Lady" players have had no major difficulties this season and with nine rounds left to play remain at the top ahead of the closest pursuers "Genoa" by five points. It is worth mentioning that "Genoa" is the oldest Italian club, having won the country's championship nine times.
In this league, the teams taking the first two places get direct tickets to "Serie A", while the clubs occupying places 3-6 fight among themselves for the third ticket to the top Italian league. Currently in third place is "Napoli", just two points behind the "Genoa" players. Five points behind the Napoli team are "Rimini", while below the fifth place are the "Mantova" and "Bologna" clubs sharing one point less.
Teams like "Piacenza", "Brescia", "Albinoleffe" and "Cesena" could still join the battle among these teams.
Spain. "Segunda Division"
Great spirits prevail in Valladolid, as "Valladolid" can secure a ticket to "La Liga" by the end of the season in two months if they defeat the "Tenerife" players this weekend. The other two clubs, which are nearly certain to play in the top division next season, are also almost clear, as in the Spanish second division, unlike in Italy and England, there are no playoff games.
With nine rounds left to play, "Valladolid" leads with 74 points, "Almeria" in second place has 64 points, and the players of "Murcia" in third are one point behind them. The fourth place is shared by three teams - "Cadiz", "Numancia" and "Ciudad Murcia" - but their chances of breaking into the top three are very uncertain, as all three teams have just 48 points each.
France. "Ligue 2"
As in Spain, in France, all three tickets are distributed during the regular season. With six rounds left to play, the currently leading "Metz" can secure a ticket to "Ligue 1" in the upcoming matches. This club has 70 points. In second place is "Caen" with 60 points, two less is the third-placed "Strasbourg". "Amiens" (54 points) and "Le Havre" (52) also have realistic chances to break into the top three.
Germany. "2. Bundesliga"
In this league, which is the smallest of all mentioned in terms of the number of participating teams, the tickets to the first Bundesliga are also distributed during the regular season. With five rounds left to play, "Karlsruhe" leads with 60 points. In second place with 55 points is Rostock's "Hansa", and in third is the former Gintaras Staučė's club "Duisburg" with 52 points. Just one point less is the fourth-place "Freiburg".
Teams like "Greuther Furth" (48 points) and "Kaiserslautern" (47) still have decent chances to fight for a ticket to the top division.
