Liverpool will kick off their Champions League campaign in the play-off round of qualifiers, and the good news is they WILL be seeded for the tie in August.
The Reds’ 3-0 win at home to Middlesbrough secured a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League, and progress to Europe’s elite next term.
After three years out of the Champions League, this marks great progress for Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, but they are not quite over the line just yet.
They will enter in the final qualifying round, with a two-legged tie set to determine whether they advance to the tournament proper.
The draw takes place on August 4, while the first leg will be held on August 15 or 16 – that’s the week following the opening day of the Premier League season – with the second leg then due for August 22 or 23.
Liverpool will be seeded for the draw, with results in the Bundesliga and the Russian Premier League going their way earlier in the weekend.
They join Sevilla, Dynamo Kiev, Ajax and one of Napoli or Roma among the seeded clubs—though Ajax could move up to the group stage if they win the Europa League on Wednesday night.
Five of 10 unseeded clubs are currently guaranteed to join the Reds in the play-offs, depending on the result of the third-round qualifiers.
Those 10 are Sporting Lisbon, Viktoria Plzen, CSKA Moscow, Club Brugge, Steaua Bucharest, Young Boys, Hoffenheim, Nice, Istanbul Basaksehir or Besiktas, and the runners-up of Superleague Greece.
The remaining sides depend on the outcome of the preliminary qualifying rounds, with Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic among those who can hope to progress.
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