Klopp pleased to have avoid English clubs in Champions League draw

Jurgen Klopp

has revealed the one thing he wished for his side to avoid in the draw for the

was a tie against another

side.

The Reds boss will have been relieved to see

draw against

for the last eight stage of the competition.

Chelsea and Manchester City’s draws are against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid respectively, whereas Villarreal will lock horns with Bayern Munich.

If the Reds beat Benfica, they will go against the winner of the latter in the semi-finals.

Klopp believes that underestimating Benfica would be a mistake.

"

The only thing I didn’t want to have – I would have taken everybody – but the only thing I didn't want was an English team,"

he said. 

"We had that in the past and we went through [2018 v Man City], we played a final against an English team [2019 v Tottenham], it’s absolutely fine, in the final anyway, you take whoever you get.

"But actually I was just happy it's not an English club, not only because of the quality but because of the competition as well, we play them often enough during a season and it's good if you play somebody else in the European competitions."

Klopp also said that he is “really looking forward” to the game, with Benfica the only rivals in the draw he has not yet faced as the Reds boss.

"

Really looking forward to it,"

Klopp added. 

"It's a quarter-final so a tough one. Benfica did obviously really well against Ajax and that's the situation. I know people will say we are the favourites and stuff like this, but that's already the first mistake you could make. We are too long in the business now to make these kinds of mistakes.

"I'm just really looking forward to it. I respect a lot what they are doing there, it's a massive club. I don't think I ever played there, to be 100 per cent honest. Lisbon, a great city.

"On top of that – I spent my last week off on holiday [before taking the Liverpool job], I got the call from [club director] Mike Gordon in Lisbon. So that's a nice memory as well. I was sitting in an outside coffee bar, I got the call and we made the decision actually in Lisbon."

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