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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Ian Doyle

Liverpool potential Champions League opponents become clearer amid play-off intrigue

Liverpool are a step nearer to discovering which teams they could face in the Champions League group stage.

The draw for the 32-team first phase takes place in the Turkish city of Istanbul - which hosts the final at the Ataturk Stadium where the Reds won the trophy in 2005 - on Thursday, August 25 at 4pm UK time.

Jurgen Klopp's side, who reached the final last season, already know they are seeded in Pot 2 as one of 26 teams to have automatically qualified for the group stage.

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The remaining six places are decided via the play-offs through one of two routes - four from the Champions Path, which contains only league winners not to have been given a direct berth to the group stage, and two from the League Path, which is for clubs who finished in lower positions in their respective leagues.

And the first legs of those play-offs, which took place this week, have offered some clues as to who could progress.

On Wednesday evening, Benfica showed little sign of struggle without Darwin Nunez as they won 2-0 against Dynamo Kyiv, while Maccabi Haifa beat Crvena zvezda 3-2 in a thriller. Elsewhere, Qarabag and Viktoria Plzen played out a 0-0 draw.

The previous night, Rangers and PSV Eindhoven fought out an enthralling 2-2 draw at Ibrox. Bodo/Glimt of Norway earned a slender 1-0 win over Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb, while Copenhagen of Denmark beat Turkish side Trabzonspor 2-1.

All six qualifiers will be potential opponents for Liverpool in the group stage, with the return games completed the day before the group stage draw.

The Reds already know they will be drawn alongside one of the top seeds in Pot 1, with Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto or Ajax potential opponents. They cannot face Premier League rivals Manchester City.

And they will also not face any of the other teams in Pot 2, which is completed by Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig and Tottenham Hotspur.

Borussia Dortmund, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Sporting Lisbon, Bayer Leverkusen, Marseille, Club Bruges and Celtic are the other automatic qualifiers.

Pot 1:

Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto, Ajax.

Pot 2:

Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, Tottenham Hotspur.

Pot 3:

Borussia Dortmund, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Sporting Lisbon, Bayer Leverkusen, Marseille* (*will drop into Pot 4 if at least one the four higher-ranked teams in the play-offs qualifies)

Pot 4:

Club Bruges, Celtic, plus six other teams.

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