Liverpool Will Face Leverkusen

By Craig McWalter
March 22 2002

Liverpool Could have been paired with Real Madrid, Man U or Barcelona. Read on to find about the draw plus Phil Thompson's reaction to it.

Liverpool have been drawn against Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

If successful in the two-leg tie, they will go on to face either Manchester United or Deportivo for a place in the final.

The quarter-final ties will be played on April 2/3, with the return leg a week later.

The first leg will be played at Anfield.

Phil Thompson believes Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final draw against Bayer Leverkusen is "as tough as any".

The Reds avoided a potential last-eight clash with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

But the assistant coach refused to admit his side had been landed with the easy option.

He said: "We've got great respect for Leverkusen. They've got a lot of players in the German national team - obviously we've spoken to Didi Hamann since about it - and we'll be looking forward to it.

"It's as tough as any - they've done very well to top their group.

"We know of them, we've played against them, in our very first game of the season, a pre-season game. We know their strengths, we know their weaknesses. It's an interesting one."

But Thompson admitted that especially after Tuesday night's superb victory over Roma, the players are confident of making the semi-finals and setting up a possible, mouth-watering clash with United.

He added: "We're confident, it doesn't matter who we'd have drawn. The way we're playing, the confidence is oozing through the players and the club and on our day we can beat anybody."

Thompson did not want to be drawn on the prospect of a last-four match against Sir Alex Ferguson's men.

"You can't look any further than that (the quarter-finals)," he said. "The main thing is to go out there and beat Bayer Leverkusen over the two games."