Topic: EL: Liverpool 4 v 0 Lask Diaz 12’ Gakpo 15’ 90+2’ Mo 51’(p)

[ABJ]

There is no country protection in the knockout rounds, so yes, we could draw an English team.

United may not even get out of their group, there is a decent chance. Even Newcastle are not certain if they get beat by Milan at home.

West ham need a draw at home to Freiburg, to which they won there, to stay top. Likely won't meet them in the round of 16. Same for Brighton, if they beat Marseille at home.

Then, there are the playoffs between the EL 2nd and CL 3rd teams.

I think in the round of 16 it is very unlikely for us to meet an English team, with the slight possibility of having 2-3 English teams in the quarterfinals. I think we will have to play an English team before we win it.

That’s not correct, country protection is still a thing in the R16, it’s scrapped from the quarters onwards, it’s always been that way.

[ABJ]

It’s usually because of advertising boards being taller for European matches (I think!).

Yes that’s correct, I read a while ago that they are 50% bigger…I assume that’s still the same!

[kop306]

good 2 goals for cody

[Red Beret]

I don't think they'll get a shock. They will expect a whooping... 

I was thinking more in terms of shit PL ref bias

[farawayred]

That’s not correct, country protection is still a thing in the R16, it’s scrapped from the quarters onwards, it’s always been that way.

I stand corrected. I know it's always been the rule, but I thought they changed that when they expanded the format.

The probability of us facing an English team in the round of 16 is minuscule anyway.

[mikey_LFC]

The last 16 draw is in Feb, which seems a shame. Would be good to know we were playing the winner of a certain game.

As for who we can draw it’ll be one of the non-English winners of a last 32 game, so a group runner up or a 3rd place side from the champions league. Currently that means we definitely can’t play Atalanta or Bayer Leverkusen, or Brighton, West Ham, Newcastle or Man Utd but could play:

Definite Through (Phase not decided)
Freiburg
Marseille
Rennes
Villarreal
Slavia Prague
Roma

Definite Last 32 (EL)
Sporting Lisbon

Definite Last 32 (CL)
Feyenoord
Young Boys

Could Qualify (EL)
Real Betis
Rangers
Sparta Prague
Toulouse - Last 32 if through
Union Saint-Gilloise - Last 32 if through
Qarabag - Last 32 if through
Molde - Last 32 if through

Could Qualify (CL)
Copenhagen
Galatasaray
Lens
Sevilla
Napoli
Sporting Braga
Union Berlin
RB Salzburg
Benfica
PSG
AC Milan
Porto
Shakhtar Donetsk

Some of those are unlikely, like Napoli are likely to be top 2 in their group in the champions league, but that’s the potential opponents so far. PSG would be the one to avoid, so hopefully they don’t fall into the competition, but that’s not that unlikely at this stage with them needing to win away at Dortmund or hope Newcastle v AC Milan is a draw.

The other interesting point to note is that we are guaranteed to have the second leg at home, which makes us favourites to beat anyone we draw I’d suspect, but with the games either side of our Man City home game, an easy tie allowing rotation would be great.

[Fromola]

I have no problem with that. European refs might not be paragons of virtue, but they're freaking saints compared to the dross the PL hands us. Any English club we go up against in the Europa is going to get a shock.

European refs not infallible but are less likely to put up with Newcastle's antics.

And we never get a fair game against the Mancs in the league games (usually reffed by Alty's finest). Even in the 5-0 he let them kick us to bits and didn't protect our lads.

We play a fair game and it generally serves us better in Europe. We're treated appallingly by PL officials.

[Ghost Town]

Shout out to the LASK Linz fans. They were amazing

[Ghost Town]

Why did we sell Myself? He’s obviously a goal scorer.

He went on to form a great spine with a couple of lower table players: Mee, Myself and Ayew

[Xabisfeet]

Apologies for dragging this back up but the frustration for me is that I think we would have had a real chance of winning the CL this season

[farawayred]

Apologies for dragging this back up but the frustration for me is that I think we would have had a real chance of winning the CL this season

It's OK, mate. Think of Kloppo, he's never won this one.

[jillcwhomever]

Apologies for dragging this back up but the frustration for me is that I think we would have had a real chance of winning the CL this season

If we win this one, Klopp's won just about everything we can win. That would be amazing and deserved for the job  he's done for us.

[Red Beret]

We can still win multiple trophies this season. Yeah, it sucks about the CL, but silverware is silverware, and we have the squad to handle it. FA Cup draw was shit mind.