Tuesday’s 0-0 with draw that saw the last 16 legs finish 5-0 on aggregate, Liverpool are now through to the Champion’s League quarter finals, their best performance in Europe since the 2008 / 09 season where they were dumped out by Chelsea. They will be joined by Real Madrid, Juventus, Manchester City, and any of Man United, Sevilla, Romna, Shakhtar Donetsk, Barcelona, Chelsea, Besiktas and Bayern who all have second leg fixtures against each other next week to decide how the last 8 teams will look.
Liverpool’s journey to the quarters hasn’t been too taxing so far, finishing the group stages undefeated and have put 10, 8 and 5 goals past Maribor, Spartak Moscow and Porto. Whoever lands Liverpool in the draw will certainly need to take them seriously as Jurgen Klopp slowly but surely builds a team that can compete with Europe’s best. As it stands, they’re definitely outside contenders for an outright Champion’s League win thanks to the selection of world-class teams in the mix, but based on current form they could end up being a decent bet, they are 9/1 outsiders but they will fancy their chances if their star players can maintain current momentum.
Although Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino couldn’t care less about who they draw, Liverpool fans will certainly want to avoid a fewe of the teams that could end up being their next opponents in the competition. The usual suspects including last year’s finalists Real Madrid and Juventus have already booked their place, and it looks like dangerous clubs like Bayern Munich, Barcelona and even the likes of United, Chelsea and City could provide a difficult stumbling block for the Reds.
Luckily, Liverpool are in a pretty good position at the moment to throw up a real challenge to whoever they face. The back four, which has caused Liverpool untold problems over the last few seasons, has been shored up nicely and the highly inconsistent Simon Mignolet now has the promising Loris Karius to deal with, but it’s in midfield and up front where things have become really exciting. Sadio Mane, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Emre Can, Roberto Firmino and of course the now talismanic Mo Salah have really torn up the Premier League and domestic competitions this season, with 78 goals and 36 of Liverpool’s assists coming from these 5 players, just going to show the calibre of squad that Klopp is building. Phillipe Coutin-who?
The trick to going far in the Champion’s League however is handling the busy double-week fixtures, and managing to get world-class players to perform to their maximum even as they tire and become injured, especially towards the end of the season. Again, Klopp certainly isn’t green when it comes to squad depth, with his squad at Dortmund boasting plenty of players who could step up in cup and league games to give his best players a better chance of being fit for Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Liverpool have the likes of Adam Lallana, Danny Ings, Dominic Solanke and Joe Gomez who could fill the gaps left behind if one if his top 5 or 6 players is ruled out with injury.
The not-so-secret weapon that Liverpool will be looking to in the quarters however will be Egyptian Mo Salah, who has completely changed Liverpool’s whole composition since arriving in January. Rejected at Chelsea and given an opportunity at Roma, Salah is now back with a vengeance, helping Liverpool to 3rd in the table with an astonishing 32 goals in all competitions and smashing the Liverpool record for the fastest player to reach 20 goals. He is certainly the key to Champion’s League success thanks to his ability to terrify defences and pluck goals from nowhere, so Klopp will need to wrap him in cotton wool in the run-up to the first quarter final games at the end of March and start of April.