Liverpool’s Champions League draw throws up Premier League complication that will infuriate Jurgen Klopp

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Liverpool’s Champions League draw creates a complication in the Premier League against Chelsea. Jurgen Klopp won’t like this one bit.

Liverpool will face Real Madrid in the Champions League Last 16 next year. Their games, per the Athletic, will take place on February 21st and March 15th.

And that’s important because Chelsea do not play on those dates. In fact, Chelsea don’t play on those weeks – their Champions League fixtures against Borussia Dortmund will happen on February 15th and March 7th.

So the obvious question is ‘what’s that got to do with Liverpool?’ and it’s not obvious. You have to go back a couple of months for the reason – when their Premier League fixture was postponed.

The easiest place to reschedule that game for was a Champions League week. If both Liverpool and Chelsea both played their fixtures in the same week, the following or preceding week would be open for a game.

But they won’t. They’re on opposite sides of the draw and that option is out the window as ESPN’s Dale Johnson points out. The only hope now is that both Liverpool and Chelsea exit the EFL and FA Cups early.

Liverpool’s Champions League draw creates chaos

We wrote at the time of the postponement that this would be tricky to fix. The fixture list is packed as it is, what with the World Cup causing congestion on either side.

It’s also something that will infuriate Jurgen Klopp. He is a vocal opponent of fixture congestion but he’ll almost certainly be without any spare weeks post-World Cup for the rest of the season. That’s absolutely mad.

In fact, it could end up that Liverpool squeeze two games into one midweek just to get this Chelsea game played. It’s hard to see another option – unless both fail miserably in the cups.