“They’ve got a chance” – Ally McCoist makes bold Liverpool claim that Reds fans would love to see

Ally McCoist has claimed that, despite their largely miserable season so far, Liverpool are still capable of going the distance in the Champions League.

The Reds face an uphill battle to merely qualify for the tournament next term given their domestic struggles, going into tonight’s match against Sunderland six points behind Manchester United in the fourth and final guaranteed berth, albeit with a game in hand on the Red Devils.

In contrast to their miserable Premier League form, Arne Slot’s side have had some excellent results in Europe, beating both Madrid clubs and winning away to Inter Milan as they finished third in the league phase of the Champions League.

McCoist not ruling out Liverpool winning the Champions League

Speaking on talkSPORT, McCoist claimed that the current Liverpool side are better suited to European competition than the English top flight and are capable of eliminating anybody on the continent.

The pundit said: “People will laugh at me. I still think they’ve got a chance to win the Champions League. I do.

“Listen, they could get knocked out just as easy, but I actually think they’ve got a chance to win it because it’s a tournament that they know. It’s a tournament that they can play against anybody.

“They’re confident in it, and I think bizarrely it’s a tournament where teams open up more against them than they do domestically. I think there’s a certain degree that suits them 100%.”

Can Liverpool plausibly win the Champions League this season?

The obvious parallel to draw here is 2004/05, when Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool slumped to a fifth-place finish in the Premier League but won the Champions League in incredible circumstances, knocking out Juventus and Chelsea before that unforgettable final against AC Milan in Istanbul.

Slot’s Reds are capable of raising their game to beat the best in Europe, having defeated Real Madrid twice in the past 15 months in addition to downing Arsenal and Inter this season, and their European form has been largely impressive (other than two poor defeats to Galatasaray and PSV Eindhoven).

No English club can match LFC’s track record in the European Cup (six-time trophy winners), and some members of the current squad have the experience of three Champions League finals, which attests to our modern-day fortunes in the tournament.

McCoist’s point about opponents’ style of play is a pertinent one. To the annoyance of Steven Gerrard (and many Liverpool fans) Slot has frequently bemoaned Premier League teams setting up in a low block against his side.

That tends to happen far less regularly in Europe, especially in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, and that could actually suit the Merseysiders.

Winning the final in Budapest on 30 May would make this a season to remember irrespective of what else happens, but Liverpool can’t afford to look beyond the round-of-16 tie they’ll face next month.

You can watch Slot’s full pre-Sunderland press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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