What happens if Liverpool finish 4th?

Found this on a website explaining what will happen if Liverpool finish 4th and who we may come up against.

Let’s assume Liverpool finish fourth. They will join nine other teams in the Play-off round.

The 10 teams will be made up of clubs that finish fourth in Spain, Germany and England, third in Italy and Portugal and five other teams that have come through from the Third Qualifying Round.

Five of these teams will be seeded and they face the five non-seeded teams. The seedings are based on UEFA’s coefficient points and, with Liverpool not performing very well in Europe in recent years, they’re in real danger of becoming one of those unseeded teams.


While Manchester City and Arsenal would be guaranteed to be seeded, Liverpool are hoping for a bit of luck to avoid some big teams.

The five winners of the two-legged tie will enter the Champions League group stage, while the losers will drop down into the Europa League.

Its looking like we wont be seeded so could end up with a tough qualifying game. We can end up being seeded if lots of results go our way though.

Here are the current rank of the top ten teams that have the possibility of entering the Champions League qualifiers. Liverpool will need to be in the top five in order to be seeded and avoid the so-called bigger clubs in the Play-off round:

1. Borussia Dortmund (124.899)
2. Sevilla (112.771)
3. Arsenal (105.021)
4. Manchester City (100.021)
5. Napoli (88.499)
6. Zenit (87.106)
7. Dynamo Kiev (67.526)
8. Ajax (64.092)
9. Liverpool (56.021)
10. Roma (53.566)

The best chance of Liverpool being seeded is if Dortmund finish third, rather than fourth. Dortmund are third - level on points with fourth-placed Hoffenheim - and need to win to automatically qualify for the group stage. So, Liverpool fans should be desperate for Dortmund to beat Werder Bremen on the final day of the season.

Liverpool should also hope that Napoli can overtake Roma in Serie A. Napoli are one point behind them with two matches remaining. The reason being Liverpool have a better coefficient than Roma, but Napoli’s is higher.


It would also help that CSKA Moscow finish second in Russia ahead of Zenit for the same reason. That is currently the case with CSKA one point above Zenit with two matches remaining.

Liverpool don’t need any more reason to support Ajax in the Europa League final but they do have one that affects them directly. If Ajax win, they will go straight into the Champions League group stage - meaning PSV will enter the qualifying rounds.

In reality, Liverpool need two of the above things to happen with Sevilla and Dynamo Kiev already confirmed in the qualification rounds - both of which have a higher coefficient than Liverpool. Basically, Liverpool fans should be cheering for Dortmund, Napoli, CSKA Moscow and Ajax in the coming weeks. And breathe.