Ever since Liverpool defeated Middlesbrough 3-0 on the final day of the Premier League, to finish 4th in the table, there has been only one question on the minds of the Liverpool fans – “Who will we be playing in the Champions League playoff?”. Yes, they will be mighty pleased that their team has returned to the Europe’s most elite footballing event, but there will be that concern in their minds as to who will the team face in the qualifiers to progress to the UEFA Champions League group stage.
This past weekend’s football action across the various leagues in Europe has made the picture much clearer to the supporters. 9 of the possible 10 teams that the Reds could take on have been confirmed and the 10th one will be determined very soon.
The weekend’s results confirmed 3 of the 5 seeded teams in the playoff stages – Liverpool, Napoli (Italy) and Sevilla (Spain). The other two teams will be Ajax (Netherlands) and Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine), if they win their third round qualifier stage ties, meaning none of these 4 clubs will be taking on the Reds.
So here are the 9 possible teams that Liverpool may find as their opponents in the qualifiers:
The Czech outfit finished 2nd in the league, 10 points behind winners Slavia Prague. One of the possible teams who Liverpool could face.
The Muscovites finished 2nd behind Spartak Moscow. Crashed out in the group stages last time around in the Champions League.
Finished 2 points behind RSC Anderlecht in the Belgian Jupiler League. Faced Leicester City in the Champions League last season. Were dumped out in the group stages.
They completed the season placed 3rd in the Portuguese Primera Liga, behind champions Benfica and runners-up Porto FC.
Finished second in the Romanian top division, 4 points behind champions Viitorul. Were defeated by Premier League outfit Manchester City in the playoff stages last season.
Were second best in the Swiss Super League, by a whopping 17-point margin behind FC Basel. Were dumped out in the playoff stages last time around by Borussia Monchengladbach.
One of the surprise packages in the French Ligue1, Nice finished third behind AS Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain. Mario Balotelli at Anfield again? That will be interesting.
Finished 4th in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund. First time in the history of the club that they have qualified for this stage, led by the youngest coach in Bundesliga, 29-year old Julian Nagelsmann.
Second best club in the Turkish Super Lig behind Besiktas FC. Were involved in the Europa League in the previous two campaigns, but did not get past the playoff stages.
Apart from these 9 clubs, the 10th possible opponent for Liverpool will be from the Greek top flight where 4 teams are embroiled in a series of playoffs to determine who will make it to the Champions League playoffs. The teams that stand a chance to qualify are AEK Athens, PAOK and Panathinaikos.
If Ajax or Dynamo Kiev lose in their third round qualifiers, the two seeded spots will go to Viktoria Plzen and CSKA Moscow, meaning Liverpool will not have to face them in that case.
The draw to determine the opponents will be made on the 4th of August by UEFA, with the first leg of the playoffs set to take place on August 16 or August 17 and the return leg to be played a week later on August 23 or August 24.
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