{"id":1602,"date":"2019-08-29T18:15:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T18:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2019-08-29T18:15:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T18:15:11","slug":"champions-league-draw-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/champions-league-draw-reaction\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League Draw Reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here we go again, then. Last year Liverpool went into the Champions League draw as losing finalists, with the chance of adding another European Cup to our collection feeling like a distant and remote possibility. Not because we weren\u2019t good enough, just because the sheer quality of teams in the tournament means that it really is very difficult to make the final more than once in a row. The Reds did the business, however, giving us plenty of memories along the way. When Borussia Dortmund were drawn in the group with Barcelona, for example, the club\u2019s Twitter account tweeted a message saying <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlackYellow\/status\/1167115620028243969\">\u2019Time to practice our corners\u2019<\/a>, taking the Mickey out of the Spanish club for the manner in which Trent Alexander-Arnold and Divock Origi pulled their pants down in the semi-final. There are no teams that wanted to be drawn in our group, yet Napoli, RedBull Salzburg and Genk saw their names come out of the hat and plopped into Group E alongside the defending European champions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#x1f4ab; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UCLdraw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UCLdraw<\/a> \u2013 Group E<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sscnapoli?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sscnapoli<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RedBullSalzburg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RedBullSalzburg<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KRCGenkofficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@krcgenkofficial<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Liverpool FC (@LFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFC\/status\/1167119163111936000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Manchester City are none of our business at this stage of the competition, given that country protection remains in place until the quarter-final stage. Yet it\u2019s impossible not to look at their draw considering the teams that they\u2019ll have to play will give Pep Guardiola pause for thought when he\u2019s picking his side for the Premier League games that come before and after the Champions League matches. With that in mind it was remarkably disappointing to see them drawn against the Dog &amp; Duck three times. If you thought that the Cityzens had used up all of their luck with their draws in the League Cup and FA Cup last year then think again. Don\u2019t be shocked if they somehow get Lincoln City in every round, even though Everton have already knocked them out. There\u2019s no bitterness in that, though. Liverpool are European champions because Manchester City can\u2019t seem to make it past the quarter-finals, so let them draw whoever they want. Let\u2019s focus on us and the key points from today\u2019s draw.<\/p>\n<h2>There\u2019s No Need To Fear Any Of Those Teams<\/h2>\n<p>Napoli came within an Alisson Becker wonder-save from knocking us out in the group stage last year, but that was more to do with our own poor performances against Red Star Belgrade in Serbia and Napoli themselves out in Italy than their own skill and ability. They\u2019re a decent side and Carlo Ancelotti will be keen for revenge not only for that but doubtless also for his experience against us in Istanbul all those years ago. You have to fancy both us and Napoli to progress, however, so even if he does get one over on us we should still have more than enough to make it through to the knockout stages relatively comfortably. That\u2019s not to underestimate either Salzburg or Genk, either. Salzburg is one of Europe\u2019s top feeder clubs, with both Sadio Man\u00e9 and Naby K\u00ebita having played for them on their journeys to Southampton and RB Leipzig before landing in Anfield. It\u2019s highly likely that they\u2019ll have some talented youngsters ready to give us a game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Liverpool have never faced Salzburg. Ke\u00efta and Man\u00e9 used to play for them though.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andrew Beasley (@BassTunedToRed) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BassTunedToRed\/status\/1167117231052009472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Even with that being said, though, the European champions have nothing to fear from any of those teams. There\u2019s a reason we won the competition last year and it\u2019s that we\u2019re one of the best teams in the world. The fact that we\u2019ve already added it to our trophy cabinet for the sixth time means that pressure will be off, too. None of our players will be overly concerned about proving anything to anybody, whilst the Anfield crowd will be keen to tell all visiting supporters exactly what title we\u2019ve had bestowed upon us thanks to our performance in Madrid. In a perfect world we\u2019ll be able to win the early matches so that the last couple are either dead rubbers or else just being played to decide who will finish at the top of the group. As we learnt last year, though, even a second-place finish shouldn\u2019t give us too much cause for concern.<\/p>\n<h2>There Isn\u2019t Much Travel<\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps the most notable thing about Group E is the fact that there isn\u2019t a huge amount of travel involved for any of the teams drawn in it. In fact, it\u2019s just over a thousand miles to the Stadio San Paolo as the crow flies, just shy of eight hundred miles to the Red Bull Arena and less than four hundred miles to the Luminus Arena in Genk. Compare that to City\u2019s one thousand seven hundred mile trip to the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv and you can see that things could have been much worse for us. That might not seem all that important, but it\u2019s exactly the sort of thing can make a difference to J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s preparations for Premier League matches.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UEFA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UEFA<\/a> Men\u2019s Player of the Year! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VirgilvDijk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@VirgilvDijk<\/a> &#x1f64c;&#x1f3fd;<br \/>\n1st defender to win the award &#x1f44f;&#x1f3fd;&#x1f44f;&#x1f3fd;<br \/>\nCalm as you like, he&#8217;s Virgil van Dijk!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/YNWA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#YNWA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UCLdraw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UCLdraw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/uefaawards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#uefaawards<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/21c7WOZJwP\">pic.twitter.com\/21c7WOZJwP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Seema Jaswal (@meseemajaswal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/meseemajaswal\/status\/1167127322480336902?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Given that our squad contains the UEFA Goalkeeper Of The Year in Alisson Becker and the winner of the Defender Of The Year <strong>and<\/strong> Player Of The Year awards in Virgil van Dijk, we can be confident of getting results from all of those away matches and then still be in fine fettle when we return to England for the follow-up matches in the domestic league. Confidence alone isn\u2019t enough to win matches, of course, but Real Madrid proved in Kiev last year that experience can often see you through. We have a delightful combination of both, which means that there shouldn\u2019t be any need to think about having to prioritise one competition over another this time around. Last year we combined 97 points with a Champions League win, so why not aim for the double this time around?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here we go again, then. Last year Liverpool went into the Champions League draw as losing finalists, with the chance of adding another European Cup to our collection feeling like a distant and remote possibility. Not because we weren\u2019t good enough, just because the sheer quality of teams in the tournament means that it really is very difficult to make the final more than once in a row. The Reds did the business, however, giving us plenty of memories along the way. When Borussia Dortmund were drawn in the group with Barcelona, for example, the club\u2019s Twitter account tweeted a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1603,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions\/1603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}