David O'Leary took Leeds United to their first European Cup semi-final since 1975, where defeat at the hands of Valencia ended their chances of a repeat of the ill-tempered 1975 European Cup clash with Bayern Munich, who beat Real Madrid in the other semi-final. Still, this disappointment was less of a dampener on a season where Leeds had fielded a predominantly young squad. They finished fourth in the final table, which meant that their place in Europe for 2001-02 would be in the UEFA Cup rather than the European Cup.

Failure to qualify for the Champions League was viewed as merely a disappointment by fans of the club, given the success in reaching the semi-final. In fact, the directors of the club had secured tens of millions of pounds of loans on successful Champions League qualification; the failure to qualify was a calamity that would see the club suffer financial disaster and be relegated twice in the coming seasons.

Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹Since Liverpool qualified for the Champions League, their place in the UEFA Cup as FA Cup winners went to Ipswich Town, and as Liverpool also won the League Cup that place went to Chelsea.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

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Wikipedia