Liverpool have been drawn with Sevilla in the Champions League group stages.
Jurgen Klopp’s side will renew acquaintances with their La Liga counterparts in the continent’s elite club competition after their 2016 Europa League final defeat.
Sevilla went on to lift the trophy for a third consecutive occasion with a 3-1 victory over the Reds in Basel’s St Jakob Park two seasons ago.
Also drawn in Group E was another familiar name in Spartak Moscow, who played Liverpool in the same stage of the competition back in late 2002.
The Russian outfit suffered a 5-0 hammering at Anfield, with an Emile Heskey brace bookending goals from Bruno Cheyrou, Sami Hyypia and Salif Diao.
In the corresponding fixture, a Michael Owen hat-trick helped Liverpool to a 3-1 win but failed to prevent them from ultimately bowing out of the group.
Spartak previously knocked Liverpool out of the second round of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, winning 6-2 on aggregate in October 1992.
Slovenian side Maribor will Liverpool for the first time as the final team in Group E.
“The draw was exciting – to be part of it is obviously really special,” said Klopp.
“There are groups with Barcelona, Bayern, Juventus and Real Madrid, and not to get them is of course more good than bad.
“But I don’t think that after this long way we should think about the opponents. We have to go and prepare.
“With Sevilla, there is an open bill, I would say. But we all know how good they are in European competition. Moscow is a long trip.
“And Maribor, in this moment you don’t know a lot about them; a lot of people would underestimate them, we will not.
“So we don’t think about the opponent, we just think about the competition. We’ll analyse and take everything seriously – we want to go as far as possible.
“But it’s the Champions League, so that means they all earn our 100 per cent respect, how we earn 100 per cent respect from them.
“That’s what we will show and hopefully we have a few really good games, which we 100 per cent need.”
Confirmed dates:
September 13: Liverpool v Sevilla
September 26: Spartak Moscow v Liverpool
October 17: Maribor v Liverpool
November 1: Liverpool v Maribor
November 21: Sevilla v Liverpool
December 6: Liverpool v Spartak Moscow