Liverpool's potential opponents for the Champions League first knockout round have been confirmed after the competition's group stage phase was concluded on Wednesday evening.
Jurgen Klopp's side booked their place in the last 16 of the tournament after beating Ajax in Amsterdam 3-0 last week. However, they were unable to wrestle top spot off Serie A leaders Napoli, despite inflicting a 2-0 defeat on Luciano Spalletti's side on Tuesday evening thanks to a flurry of late goals from Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez.
Starting their Group A campaign off with a 4-1 mauling of the Reds in Naples back in September was enough to give the Partenopei a healthy head-to-head advantage over Liverpool and ensure they advanced into next week's draw as a seeded side.
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Contrastingly, Liverpool will be one of eight unseeded teams when the balls are placed into the pot at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon shortly after 11am on November 7. But they are only eligible to be drawn against four of the eight group winners.
With UEFA's country protection rule still in place for the first knockout round, the Reds are unable to be drawn against any of their Premier League counterparts - Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City or Chelsea - who all won their respective groups. Instead, any potential all-English clashes will have to wait until the quarter-final stage of the competition, should they all progress.
Teams are unable to be paired against those who they have advanced from the group stage with, which will see Liverpool spared the stress of a fourth trip to the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in five seasons. That means there are only four the Reds can be pulled out alongside: Porto, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Benfica.
A reunion with former Anfield star Sadio Mane is arguably the most eye-catching potential tie for the Reds. Meanwhile, Klopp's side could also face Real Madrid in a repeat of last season's Champions League final, which Liverpool lost 1-0.
While Liverpool have yet to reign victorious from any of their four clashes with Los Blancos during Klopp's tenure, the same can't be said about the Bavarians, who the Reds knocked out of the competition on the way to lifting Europe's most coveted trophy back in 2019.
Porto would present familiar surroundings for Liverpool and their travelling supporters: a side they successfully dispatched in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Paris Saint-Germain had seemed destined to be the seeded representative from Group H, that was until Benfica ran riot in Israel and thumped Maccabi Haifa 6-1, meaning they leapfrogged the Parisians in the standings on goal difference.
That, of course, means Darwin Nunez could find himself facing familiar opposition in early 2023, having spent two seasons with the Portuguese giants prior to his £64m switch to Anfield.
The full draw will be made on Monday, November 7. The ECHO will have full coverage of the draw at the top of our Liverpool FC homepage, here.
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