Liverpool have been confirmed in Pot 3 for their Champions League return after their faint hopes of being seeded second were ended at the start of the month.
Its Liverpool’s first Champions League campaign since the 2009-10 season that ended rather poorly, Liverpool bowed out in the Group Stage. It’s their first European competition in two years where they got knocked out in the devastating fashion to Zenit St Petersburg in the Round of 32.
For the 2014-15 UEFA Champions Liverpool will be in Pot 3 alongside (*Team in play-offs. Failure to qualify would see everyone below them move up a ranking);
Bayer Leverkusen
Olympiakos
CSKA Moscow
Ajax
Napoli
Sporting Lisbon
Galatasaray
Worst Case Scenario
If the draw is cruel towards Liverpool their possible opponents in the group could be Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Roma.
Real Madrid last season finished third in La Liga with 87 points, just three behind league winners Atletico Madrid, despite finishing third, Los Merengues netted a staggering 104 goals and to add to that tally, Real won their tenth La Décima.
It’s obvious who their key players are, Real Madrid have in their artillery; Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Angel Di Maria, Isco, Luka Modric, Xabi Alonso and new signings Tony Kroos and James Rodriguez the list of World Class players Real Madrid possess is endless.
The next possible opponent Liverpool could face are Borussia Dortmund, last season Quarter-Finalists in last seasons Champions League could also be in the group. Liverpool played Dortmund in a friendly in pre season and beat the Germans 4-0 at Anfield.
Despite losing key men Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski, Borussia Dortmund still have quality in the team; new signings Adrian Ramos, Ciro Immobile and their other key players; Marco Reus, Pierre Emerick Aubameyng and Mats Hummels. Borussia Dortmund lost key player but they still have quality all over the pitch and can beat anyone on their day.
Finally, the last team in Liverpool’s worst group that could possibly be drawn is Roma. Roma finally back in the most coveted European competition, the Champions League. Their previous campaign in the Champions League was in 2010/11 where they crashed out in the Round of 16 against Shakthar Donetsk 6-2 on aggregate.
Roma’s attack is a force to be reckoned with Mattia Destro, Miralem Pjanic, captain Francesco Totti, Juan Iturbe and Adem Ljajic. But, it isn’t attacking where the quality stops, new signing Konstantinos Manolas, Leandro Castán Ashley Cole and Davide Astori.
Best Case Scenario
However, it can’t be all doom and gloom for Liverpool as they could have a relatively easy draw where they can guarantee qualification. The teams that could visit Anfield are Porto, FC Basel, Apoel Nicosia or BATE Borisov.
FC Porto had to beat Lille to get to the Champions League ‘proper’. Goals from Yacine Brahimi and Jackson Martinez sent the Portuguese giants through.
Basel got automatic qualification for finishing first in the Swiss league by seven points ahead of Grasshopper with Valentin Stocker their top scorer in that season, he transferred to Hertha BSC in the summer.
Apoel and BATE both progressed through the qualifying stage. Apoel got through by beating HJK Helsinki 4-2 on agg and beating Aalborg BK 5-1 on agg. As for BATE, firstly in the second qualifying round BATE beat Skënderbeu on away goals, they then beat Debrecen 3-2 on agg, finally to be in the Group stage for the tenth time in the clubs history BATE beat Slovan Bratislava 4-1 on agg.