Liverpool will return to the Champions League seeded in the third group of teams.
Across European Football as a whole, Liverpool are ranked as the 32nd best side based on UEFA's points scoring over the last 5 seasons. In terms of teams qualified for the Champions League, the reds are in position 22.
Liverpool's 2009/10 Champions League campaign adds the most points, topped up from the 2010/11 and 2012/13 Europa League campaigns. The reds were not represented in European football for 2 of the last 5 seasons.
Five of the teams ranked above Liverpool must negotiate qualifying rounds to reach the group stage - but even if the unthinkable happened and all these sides were knocked out - Liverpool would still be one place out of the 2nd group of seeds.
Data from Bert Kassies (* teams must get through qualification rounds)
Manchester City have just managed to keep their place in the 2nd pot of seeds.
Who could Liverpool get in their group?
Liverpool can't be drawn against other English clubs, so assuming all the seeded teams qualify then Liverpool could face one team from each of the following pots:
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, FC Porto*
Pot 2: Schalke, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Basel, Zenit St Petersburg*
Pot 4: Anderlecht, FC Salzburg*, AS Roma, Steaua Bucharest*, Celtic*, BATE Borisov*, AS Monaco, Unconfirmed qualifier*
Which group would you want?
Salzburg WHO!?
Come on everyone who is thinking negative about Liverpool in ucl next season we’ll cheer up we’re going there to win it I mean teams in pot 1 are amazing but we have s a s we have stevie g the best captain their is don’t forget we got mad goalkeepers we have Simon mignolet and we have pepe reina coming back from loan we have the team that is good enough to take it home so we just have to belive in Liverpool you’ll never walk alone
Whoever we get its going to be difficult for us to qualify out the group. Been 4 seasons away and we have yet to learn the tactical resolve to get clean sheets when required.
So, let’s just have 6 cracking games – Madrid, Dortmund and Celtic!
Basel, Porto and Bate if they qualify
Agreed, exactly those 3. Worst would be Bayern, PSG and Roma, although they would be great games. No champs league games should be taken lightly, but with our small squad I would favour an easier group, just so it could have less impact on EPL form.