“Tonight regarded like carnage,” Andy Robertson laughed after Liverpool concluded the inaugural league part of the new-look Champions League with their first European defeat of the season.
“The league desk was everywhere,” the Scot mentioned, reflecting on the 17 different matches which had been going down on the similar time, “so I am glad our place was settled.”
Seven straight wins to start out the league part assured Liverpool a spot within the high two and thereby automated qualification into the spherical of 16.
“I am simply glad we do not have a play-off,” Robertson admitted. “There’ll at all times be robust video games so let’s examine who we face as soon as they combat out within the play-offs.” Good thought.
Forward of Friday’s Champions League draw, Liverpool might face any considered one of 4 opponents; Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Monaco or Brest.
As PSG and Benfica completed fifteenth and sixteenth within the closing league part desk, they may come up towards both Monaco (seventeenth) or Brest (18th) within the knockout play-off rounds, with the ultimate fixtures to be determined in Nyon this week.
PSG might have solely gained half of their league part matches, however they’re undoubtedly the one aspect which Liverpool want to keep away from.
Luis Enrique’s French champions completed the primary stage of the competitors with a trio of victories and have not been crushed in any setting since a limp 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich again in November. Boasting a youthful and fleet-footed frontline, PSG ought to come by means of their all-French play-off.
The upcoming draw will solely resolve the knockout play-off pairings, the primary legs of which shall be performed on 11/12 February. As soon as these ties are concluded on the next midweek, Liverpool’s variety of potential opponents can have been halved.
The draw for the spherical of 16 will happen on 21 February 2025 and eventually reveals whether or not Liverpool or Barcelona (who completed second within the league part) will play the winner of play-off primary or quantity eight.
This 12 months’s Champions League group stage equal stretched past Christmas for the primary time in twenty years, nevertheless, the spherical of 16 calendar hasn’t been majorly altered. Simply as final season, the knockout spherical will conclude in spring, with the primary legs set to be held on 4/5 March earlier than the return fixture one week in a while 11/12 March.
There’s virtually a month to attend till the quarter-finals (8/9 April) earlier than the ultimate 4 begins on the finish of April. This 12 months’s European showpiece, which shall be held at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Enviornment, is about to happen on 31 Might.
