Liverpool receives Champions League boost ahead of Marseille as qualification picture becomes clear

Defeats for Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Inter Milan and Borussia Dortmund were welcome updates for Liverpool as it prepares to face Marseille in the Champions League

The Champions League results suited Liverpool on Tuesday ahead of the Marseille game(Image: )

Arne Slot and his Liverpool squad may have let out a few cheers from their hotel in the south of France on Tuesday night, as the Champions League results came rolling in.

The Reds were aware before the penultimate round of league-phase matches began that they could not afford a defeat against Marseille, but now know exactly what taking three points would mean for their chances of automatic qualification.

That’s a status only Arsenal has so far achieved courtesy of its 100 percent winning streak in the competition, and has secured a top-two finish already, as was the case for Liverpool in last season’s iteration.

This campaign hasn’t gone quite as smoothly, with Liverpool sitting 11th at the halfway stage in the seventh round of fixtures. Liverpool’s clash against Marseille is, of course, one of nine Champions League games to be played on Wednesday.

A win for the Reds at the Stade Velodrome would see them move up to 15 points, the same tally as second-place Real Madrid.

Indeed, that scenario would see Liverpool clamber above Paris Saint-Germain (fifth), Manchester City (seventh) and Inter Milan (ninth), all of whom lost on Tuesday, plus Tottenham Hotspur (fourth) and Sporting Lisbon (sixth). Twelfth-place Borussia Dortmund also missed the chance to overtake Liverpool on Tuesday.

Manchester City suffered a shock defeat to Bodo/Glimt on Tuesday(Image: )

Bayern Munich and Atalanta are the only sides with more points than Liverpool that play on Wednesday, so there is a real opportunity for the Reds to take a giant step towards claiming a top-eight finish and bypassing the perilous play-offs next month.

Victory would also leave Liverpool on 15 points. Only 16 were required for an automatic qualification place last season, with the Reds facing a relatively kind concluding fixture against 25th-place Qarabag at home next week.

However, a glance at the table shows how concerning Liverpool’s fate will be if it drops points in Marseille.

Indeed, the sides ranked 13th to 18th (Newcastle United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Marseille, Juventus and Galatasaray) all play on Wednesday and could overtake Liverpool in the table should it lose. The Reds’ goal difference of +3 doesn’t help matters either.

Liverpool cannot afford to slip up against Marseille(Image: )

With Newcastle hosting PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona traveling to Slavia Prague, and Chelsea facing Pafos, Liverpool must approach Wednesday’s fixtures knowing that at least some of those sides will almost certainly earn victories.

It all feeds into what now promises to be one of the most high-stakes matches Liverpool will play in this season.

Win, and it takes a giant step toward qualification, but dropped points would leave those hopes dangling precariously by the thinnest of threads.