Record Five Teams From Spain in This Year's UEFA Champions League

There will be a total of five Spanish teams in this year's UEFA Champions League following Valencia's triumph over Monaco in the qualification play-off. This is a new tournament record for a number of representatives from a single country.

Valencia will join Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla in the 2015/16 UCL group stage, which commences in the month of September.

The new record was made possible by a recent change in UEFA rules, which now allow the winner of Europa League to gain instant qualification to the following season's Champions League group stage. The change was brought in place to make the Europa League more interesting and valuable to the European elite clubs. Since Sevilla defended their Europa League title, they will be the first team to benefit from the new rule.

As for Spain, having five teams in the Europe's most important club football competition just underlines their recent dominance in the sport. Real Madrid famously won their tenth Champions League trophy in 2014, followed by Barcelona winning it in 2015.

It will be interesting to see what this season has in store for Spanish teams.