Jurgen Klopp admitted that he “laughed” upon seeing Liverpool’s Champions League group for the first time.
The Reds have been drawn against Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and FC Porto in Group B of the competition.
“I laughed, to be honest, pretty loud because it is a tough group obviously,” the German told liverpoolfc.com.
“It’s Champions League, so that’s how it is, and you have to play the best teams in Europe, and obviously some of them are in our group!
“We played, I don’t know how often, already against Porto, so they will be waiting for us. We have obviously a little bit of [an] open bill with Atletico, and AC Milan, a historical one obviously.
“So, I think our supporters should be looking forward to it – we do, for sure.
“I know that people sit always at home and think, ‘Ah come on, that would be cool, then you have this team together and the worst of pot four and the worst of pot one’ and all this kind of stuff.”
Having been recently knocked out by Diego Simeone’s men in the Round of 16 two campaigns ago, the former Dortmund boss will undoubtedly be hoping to set the record straight when we next come up against Los Colchoneros.
There’s an argument to be had that we’re better placed coming up against a relatively tough group in the Champions League in terms of preparation for the knockout stages.
In that respect, there can certainly be no arguments against the fact that Liverpool have an objectively tough group to compete in, though not one that is insurmountable, as many fans noted.
It will be dependent to a certain extent on any injury struggles we encounter over the course of the campaign, though a solid pre-season for certain stars will be encouraging on that front.
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