Automatic promotion to the Champions League gives Liverpool clear bonuses and a nightmare scenario

Liverpool can take advantage – or potential disadvantages – of automatic Champions League knockout qualification against Girona

Liverpool can afford to celebrate this Tuesday night as they have achieved a huge success. Arne Slot’s team secured automatic qualification for the knockout rounds of the Champions League, and did so in the shortest possible way.

AC Milan, Bologna, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid. Earlier in the week they were the five teams Liverpool had beaten in Europe this season, and now Girona have been added to that list with a 1-0 win in Spain.

Mohamed Salah’s second-half penalty made the difference, ensuring the perfect record was maintained, maximum points were secured and the Reds’ name was first in the round of 16 rather than facing the play-offs.

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This will bring many benefits to Liverpool in both the short and long term, although there may still be a difficult scenario. Here, the ECHO analyzes the weight of the club’s recent achievements.

Less traffic jams

A brilliant advantage of reaching the top eight of the league stage is that you don’t have to play two extra games in an already busy calendar. Due to the direct entry into the round of 16, the play-off round, which consists of two games and takes place on the 11th/12th, is no longer necessary. and 18th/19th will be held in February.

For Liverpool this midweek there is already a possible game in the fourth round of the FA Cup (February 8th), a Premier League home game against Wolves (February 16th) and, above all, the Premier League away game at Manchester City ( February 23) planned.

With Man City facing the very real prospect of qualifying through the play-off round of the Champions League, they could go into this clash on a heavy foot compared to the Reds’ rested players.

Road to the final

As always in the Champions League, a better performance in the earlier rounds would, at least on paper, make the route to the final easier.

In the inaugural season of this new European competition system, finishing in the top eight in the league stage will ensure Liverpool face a non-Premier League opponent in the round of 16 who makes it through the play-offs.

With Aston Villa, Arsenal and Man City all sitting in ninth to 14th place as of tonight, this would further reduce the pool of teams UEFA could field them against.

The draws for the knockout rounds remain largely the same as in the old format, so the path to the final should quickly become clear.

Financial incentive

Here too, the better the performance in the earlier rounds, the greater the financial reward for the club.

According to UEFA, qualifying for the round of 16 will earn the Reds €11m (£9.27m), rather than the €1m (£842,669) guaranteed to those who reach the play-offs.

Then there are some powerful bonuses if you make the most of the league phase. Firstly, wins at this stage are worth €2.1m (£1.77m) each, meaning the club has already won a total of €12.6m (£10.4m) and will end up winning €16.8m Euros (13.8 million pounds) could have.

There is also a bonus ranking system that distributes additional prize money depending on your position in the table. It starts with the 36th place team winning a single “share” worth €275,000 (£226.7m), the 35th place team winning two shares, and so on, all the way up to the team in the first place, which would win 36 shares.

With Liverpool on track to land here, they could gain another €9.9m (£8.1m). In the worst case scenario it would be this amount, as every drawn game in the league phase means more money increases the value of the shares.

Nightmare scenario

However, despite all the advantages, this can create a possible situation that would jeopardize the good progress of slots men.

Coming back to the point of fewer fixtures and midweek fixtures still open in February due to non-participation in the play-offs, there is still the little matter of the Merseyside derby to sort out. Due to Storm Darragh, the clash at Goodison Park last Saturday lunchtime was postponed and must therefore be rescheduled.

At the moment the next available midweek is the week commencing January 6th. However, a possible Carabao Cup semi-final would take precedence if the team progresses in the competition later this month.

The rest of the first month of the year is full and cannot be played then. This leaves various midweek dates available in February, including the one between Wolves and Man City games.

It would be far from ideal if Liverpool were tasked with facing their Merseyside rivals under the lights one last time at Goodison Park, just days before they travel to championship rivals Man City – a stadium they have not won at since 2018 has.