Avoiding Champions League knockout round more important than being top — Slot

Liverpool manager  says, finishing in the top eight and avoiding two playoff games in the Champions League is the most important thing.

This was after Liverpool narrowly missed clinching top spot with a game to spare in the Champions League despite a 2-1 defeat of French side Lille on Tuesday.

Liverpool’s win guaranteed the Premier League leaders a top-eight finish and a berth in the last 16, thus avoiding the two-legged knockout phase facing the teams who finish ninth to 24th.

Barcelona, who staged a dramatic 5-4 comeback win over Benfica with a stoppage-time goal by Raphinha, are snapping at Liverpool’s heels, three points behind with one round of the league phase to play.

READ ALSO:De Jong scores twice as 10–man PSV beat Red Star Belgrade

“If in tennis you are the number one seed it is better to face the number 24 than the 12, but it is a ranking based on years,” Slot said.

“Now we are in a new format when some teams are high in the league table because they had a lucky draw and some teams are low because they have a very difficult draw.

“It is far off to say it is an advantage to be one or two. You might be lucky, you might be very unlucky.

“For me, it doesn’t tell me anything. The most important thing is we managed to skip a round.”

READ ALSO:Slot not sure if Champions League top spot ‘an advantage’

Mohamed Salah scored his 50th European goal for Liverpool and substitute Harvey Elliott sealed the victory in the 67th minute after Jonathan David had levelled for Lille.

Liverpool set a club record for their longest spell without conceding a goal in European competition, with 599 minutes elapsing between Christian Pulisic’s goal for AC Milan in the opening game and David’s strike on Tuesday.

In between, Liverpool kept clean sheets against Bologna, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid and Girona, and topped the 572 minutes without conceding in the 2005/2006 season under Rafael Benitez.

“Very pleased,” Slot said. “Where I put everything down to, first of all quality of the players and second these players have a quality work rate.

“If you combine those two things it is very difficult to score against the team. The nice thing for me is we keep clean sheets not by defending a lot, we keep clean sheets by attacking a lot.”

Slot said patience was required against a Lille side that maintained their composure even after being reduced to 10 men in the second half.

He added that it showed why their opponents had been unbeaten in 21 successive games across all competitions.

READ ALSO:‘Worst ever’ Man Utd turn to Europa League as saving grace

“They don’t have the best players in the world (but) it is how disciplined they are, how hard they want to work,” Slot said.

“We didn’t force the pass, we kept the ball for as long as we could. The only thing I wasn’t happy about was it was one chance for the other team.”

Lille manager Bruno Genesio said that while he was frustrated by the loss, “it’s a feeling that is mixed with pride as well.

“I think the display we put on, particularly the second half when we were one man down, I was pleased about.”