Arne Slot named six teams who can win the Champions League after Liverpool’s heartbreaking exit by the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.
The runaway Premier League leaders were in a robust position to advance to the quarter-finals after beating PSG 1-0 in the primary leg of their last-16 tie.
Liverpool were second best for big periods on the Parc des Princes but an all-time great performance Alisson Becker kept PSG at bay before Harvey Elliott scored a late and dramatic winner.
Anfield was expected to play an enormous part within the last-16 tie but Paris Saint-Germain took the encounter to penalties after winning 1-0 in normal time, Ousmane Dembele with the one goal.
Gianluigi Donnarumma then saved penalties from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones to send PSG through courtesy of a 4-1 win within the shootout.
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Paris Saint-Germain will face one other Premier League side within the quarter-finals if Club Brugge are unable to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit against Aston Villa.
Elsewhere on that side of the draw, Arsenal are set for a quarter-final clash after thrashing PSV 7-1 last week, while Madrid rivals Real and Atletico are separated by only one goal going into the second leg of their mouth-watering tie.
Bayern Munich will face Inter Milan on the opposite side of the draw while Barcelona will tackle Borussia Dortmund or Lille after easing past Benfica.
Liverpool boss Slot refused to explain PSG as Champions League ‘favourites’ after his side’s exit and said five other teams also had a probability of lifting the trophy.
‘No, I wouldn’t say they’re favourites,’ Slot told Amazon Prime Video. ‘You recognize how much I like this team and the way impressive they were last week and today.
‘It shouldn’t be easy to play over here in these circumstances once we are so aggressive but they were capable of get the win over the road.
‘It is a superb team, but there are various good teams still within the competition.
‘Normally you face these teams within the semi-final and the ultimate but unfortunately we needed to face Paris Saint-Germain, one in every of the richest clubs on this planet, already on this round.
‘They’ll win it, they will, but unfortunately for them they’re not the one team that may win it. And it’s at all times about two games so luck and bad luck can play a component as well.’
Asked who he rated because the favourites, Slot added: ‘I haven’t played all of them.
‘I like Barcelona in the meanwhile rather a lot as well, Arsenal has a superb team, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich is impressive. So it’s going to be close, prefer it was tonight.’
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Slot said Tuesday’s Champions League defeat to PSG was the ‘best game of football I’ve ever been involved in’ and praised his side for his or her ‘incredible’ performance.
‘It was the most effective game of football I actually have ever been involved in,’ Jurgen Klopp’s successor at Anfield said.
‘It was an incredible performance, especially in the event you compare it with last week. Perhaps we ran out of luck since the margins were so small.
‘We played the proper game, aside from scoring a goal. It was just like Paris last week, after they played the proper game and didn’t rating. After which in overtime, they were perhaps a bit bit higher.’
Reds captain Virgil van Dijk added: ‘We were pretty good and you ought to go so far as possible, but we knew once we drew Paris that it was going to be very difficult.
‘In Paris, we struggled but we won. Today we saw a superb Liverpool side, but we’re out of the competition.’
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