Liverpool's lack of Europa League football explained as tournament rule enforced
The Europa League is back on Thursday with 16 teams in action in the first knockout round, but Liverpool, West Ham, Brighton and Rangers are not among them.
All four British teams qualified from their respective groups and that means they have advanced straight to the last-16, along with Atalanta, Villarreal, Salvia Prague and Bayer Leverkusen. The eight teams which finished second in their groups, however, have to win their knockout round play-offs in order to reach the last 16.
Those teams are the ones which will be in action on Thursday, having been drawn against the eight sides which finished third in their Champions League groups. Those ties will be contested over two legs, with the first taking place on Thursday and the second on February 22.
The eight clubs which win those knockout ties will then be draw against the group winners in the last 16, with the draw set to take place on February 23. Those matches are set to happen on March 7 and March 14.
Last season, Barcelona and Manchester United met in a knockout play-off and Erik ten Hag's side ultimately emerged victorious, winning 4-3 on aggregate. However, not a single British team will be involved this year with those that crashed out of the Champions League all finishing bottom of their group.
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Celtic, Newcastle and the Red Devils all managed to pick up just the one win and have been eliminated from Europe entirely. Unsurprisingly, Liverpool, Brighton and West Ham are all among the favourites to win the Europa League this season, along with Bundesliga high-fliers Leverkusen and Italian giants AC Milan.
Liverpool are the outright favourites as they seek to give manager Jurgen Klopp a fitting send-off in what will be his final European campaign at Anfield. Klopp has announced he will be stepping down at the end of the season after almost nine years.
The Europa League's knockout play-offs take place tonight (Getty Images)The Europa League is one trophy that has eluded Klopp during his time at Liverpool, having lost the 2016 final 3-1 to Sevilla. Speaking back in September about his Europa League ambitions, Klopp told TNT Sports: "We never had like public targets, we never needed that to go as far as we can.
"First and foremost, I think we all have to make sure that everybody, for the team I'm responsible, [but] that we all respect the competition in the right manner [and] that we respect the opponents [in] the right manner.
"We want to go as far as somehow possible. I would love to go to the final, obviously, but I have no clue if you can reach that because there will be a lot of fantastic football teams in between us and that target. So we have to make sure we perform."
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