Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp believes that the best chance for the club to reach the Champions League group stages next season is by winning the Europa League.
The club are against German outfit Augsburg in the last 32 of the competition. Since Klopp knows the German outfit very well after having played against them for several seasons while as the manager of Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool are expected to have a minor edge. This can be negated by the home advantage for Augsburg.
An away goal will certainly put Liverpool as favourites and the club just boosted the confidence by scoring six without reply against Aston Villa during the weekend. Since the club are struggling to have any sort of consistency in the Premier League, Klopp says that qualify for the Champions League will be difficult based only on league position. In recent times, winners of the Europa League have been given a straight road to the Champions League group stages in a bid to boost the profile of the competition. This could come to the aid of Liverpool, although teams like Tottenham and Manchester United will also be targeting the same.
The Reds are a whopping nine points behind Manchester City, who occupy the final qualification spot for the Champions League. Klopp has basically thrown in the towel on a top four finish. “Sometimes you can look at winning a cup as the shortest way to get somewhere but for sure the Europa League is not the shortest way to get to the Champions League, it is a really hard race. How many points in the league are we away from the Champions League? I think it is nine. So, yeah, at this moment I would say we have a better chance this way at the moment,” said the Liverpool boss.