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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Paul Gorst

Liverpool avoid Champions League nightmare but draw danger lurks for Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool's runway to Paris has been illuminated and the plot for European Cup No.7 begins in earnest.

It takes just 80 minutes to fly from Merseyside to the French capital and the flight-scanning websites have no doubt already been inundated by Reds fans as they dream about a potentially glorious evening on May 28.

And the football route for Jurgen Klopp and his team could quite easily have been more treacherous too during Friday's draw quarter and semi-final draws in Nyon.

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A first meeting with Benfica since a Europa League tie in 2010 will see the Reds head to Lisbon on April 5 before a second leg at Anfield on Wednesday the 13th.

Klopp would never admit as much publicly and Liverpool will, of course, do due diligence to a side that came through a group that included Bayern Munich and Barcelona, but the reality is the draw has been favourable.

Nelson Verrisimo's side currently trail leaders Porto by 12 points domestically - a team who Liverpool beat comfortably home and away in their Group B campaign - so the threat of the Eagles, while taken seriously, will not overly daunt the quadruple-hunters.

As European Cup holders in 2006, Rafa Benitez's Reds saw their grip on the Champions League relinquished by Benfica but there will be no trepidation when this tie swings around into focus next month for Klopp's men.

Should Liverpool emerge unscathed in their third quarter-final of the season, a potential showdown with Bayern Munich could await them in the last four after they were paired with Spanish side Villarreal.

Liverpool surged past the German giants three years ago en route to Madrid, but the Bundesliga leaders represent one of the finest squads left in this competition. If there is to be a winner from outside of England, it is Bayern whose odds will be shortest.

With the likes of Leroy Sane, Serge Gnbary and the evergreen, peerless Robert Lewandowski to call upon in their squad, a potential two-legged tie with the Bavarians is a mouthwatering prospect for the neutrals.

And while that would no doubt be the toughest examination yet of Liverpool's Champions League-winning credentials, the fact that the other two Premier League giants have been avoided will be a welcome development at the AXA Training Centre.

Klopp, though, knows all too well the power Bayern have to break hearts in this competition. It was his Borussia Dortmund side who were beaten by them at Wembley in the 2013 final and the Reds boss had a history of seeing 'FC Hollywood' cherry-picking his biggest and brightest stars at BVB.

The manager's Friday press conference was called before the draw to perhaps avoid the attention on a competition that won't be played for another three games and it is likely his already relaxed mood was lifted even further by the draw.

With Manchester City to visit on April 10, the idea of three successive games against Pep Guardiola was a prospect few would have wanted at either end of the M62.

That titanic showdown at the Etihad next month has already been excitedly circled by football followers across the land as the title's next destination looks more uncertain than ever heading into the international break.

That game promises to be an epic, so the idea of it being slap bang in the middle of a three-fixture run would surely have taken some considerable sheen off it. After all, trilogies rarely become classics.

And the avoidance of Chelsea will have been greeted with a quiet fist shake in the bowels of the Kirkby training base too given the exacting, draining nature of the three meetings against the Londoners already this season.

Two Premier League draws were followed up by 120 punishing Carabao Cup final minutes that were also unable to separate the sides before Kepa Arrizabalaga belted his penalty down Wembley Way at 11-10 last month to give the Reds the win.

Liverpool will plainly need some luck of the draws if they are to go all the way in every competition and all considered, Klopp will be delighted at his European fate as the fight on all fronts gathers pace.

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