Not just Tottenham – 4 big European clubs at risk of relegation this season

Tottenham’s winless run is over but they are still facing the prospect of an unthinkable relegation from the Premier League – yet they aren’t the only club at risk of a rare drop from the top flight.

Spurs finished one place above the relegation zone last season, but the points gap with the bottom three meant they were never really in danger. It’s different this time around, though, with Roberto De Zerbi facing the daunting task of guiding them away from unprecedented danger.

Regarded as one of the ‘big six’ in the Premier League, Tottenham dropping down to the Championship would be a shocking story.

However, while this may bring no comfort to their fans, they aren’t the only big club facing a similar narrative this season.

We’ve looked across the European leagues to pick out some clubs you might be surprised to see in relegation battles.

Sevilla

Like Spurs, the rut Sevilla have got stuck in has been coming for a while. A hat trick of fourth-place finishes between 2019-20 and 2021-22 has been followed by a steady deterioration.

They finished 12th in 2022-23 (whilst inevitably winning the Europa League), 14th in 2023-24 and 17th in 2024-25, when they ended up just one point above the bottom three.

Once again, they are flirting with the relegation zone at the moment. Fears over their position caused the sacking of head coach Matias Almeyda in March, to be replaced by Luis Garcia (not the former Liverpool player, but a 53-year-old who was most recently in charge of Alaves).

Sevilla have only won one of their past eight games and fell into the bottom three with their most recent loss to Osasuna. They still have Champions League-bound Villarreal to play and Real Madrid on the penultimate matchday could be a decisively tricky tie, too.

They recently even lost to 19th-placed Levante, who are now just two points behind them and looking to mount their own escape from the drop zone.

The 2000-01 season was the last time Sevilla weren’t in the Spanish top flight. They’ve had seven top-four finishes since then, but have been flirting with danger a few too many times in recent years.

Not even signing Neal Maupay has helped them much. Could it finally catch up with them?

Nice

One of the other clubs in Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos empire, Nice have suffered a steep decline in fortunes this season.

Only two teams are relegated automatically from Ligue 1 and Nice are now clear enough of that danger zone.

However, the team that finishes third from bottom goes into a play-off to preserve their top-flight status – and that’s a trap Nice could conceivably fall into.

With three games left, they are five points above Auxerre – who they are due to meet in what could be a tantalising penultimate game of the season. Moreover, they have second-placed Lens on their outstanding fixture list too (both in the league and the Coupe de France final).

Nice have been in Ligue 1 since 2002 and have an encouraging chance of staying there, but will still have to fight for that status over the coming weeks.

Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg have been a Bundesliga outfit without interruption since 1997, but face an uphill battle to preserve that status into a 30th year.

They fell into the bottom two at the start of March with a 4-0 loss to Stuttgart. A week later, they changed their coach for the second time this season.

Now with three games left, Wolfsburg are six points adrift of automatic safety, and one away from the relegation play-off spot in the Bundesliga.

They have the joint-worst defence in the German top flight this season, having conceded more than 60 goals. Remarkably, their win over Union Berlin at the weekend was their first from the second half of the season.

Legia Warsaw

Legia Warsaw are Poland’s most successful club and the only to never have been relegated from the top flight since the Second World War. But they find themselves in a potentially perilous position with four games left this season.

Although they began the campaign playing in the Europa League qualifiers, Legia have found wins few and far between domestically. They are currently outside the bottom three only by a point.

It’s an incredibly tight table, though. For all their peril, they are just three points away from the lower reaches of the top half. It could all turn out to be just fine.

But the sight of such a powerhouse of Polish football being so close to the relegation zone is certainly intriguing as the business end of the season arrives.

Other than bottom-placed Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza, all of the teams Legia still have to play are no further than two points away from them in the table in either direction.

Honourable mentions

The following clubs aren’t as much household names internationally, but have pedigree in their respective leagues that they could fall out of:

• Northern Irish Premiership side Crusaders have a relegation play-off coming up, despite being seven-time league winners and featuring in the Conference League play-offs in each of the past three seasons.
• KF Tirana are the most successful club in Albania, the country whose capital they come from, with 26 league titles to their name, but are only out of the relegation zone via their head-to-head record at present with three games left.
• Banik Ostrava are bottom of the Czech First League despite finishing third last season and setting out from the Europa League qualifiers.

READ MORE: Who will stay or go if Spurs are actually relegated to the Championship?

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