Joe Cole already thinks he knows which team Liverpool are going to draw in the Europa League today

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Liverpool are through to the Europa League quarter-finals after thrashing Sparta Prague 11-2 on aggregate.

The Reds made good on their tag as tournament favourites last night, dominating Sparta from the very first minute of the game. As the Czech side’s manager, Brian Priske, said after the game, Liverpool were ‘world class’ at Anfield.

Having made it safely into the last eight, the Reds won’t have to wait too long to find out who’s next up. The Europa League quarter-final draw takes place this afternoon, following its Champions League equivalent, which is set to kick-off at 12pm.

There are some tricky looking possibilities for Liverpool. Perhaps the most intriguing though is a potential match-up with Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen. And speaking to TNT Sports last night, Joe Cole claimed that he was ‘convinced’ the Reds will be paired with the German table-toppers.

“Leverkusen will get Liverpool tomorrow, I’m convinced of it. I can feel it,” Cole predicted.

“Maybe a passing of the torch? Maybe he [Jurgen Klopp] can show him [Alonso] round the stadium after the game, after Liverpool win of course.”

Liverpool ready for Europa League draw

Looking at the seven options for Liverpool to draw today, and they all look like potentially difficult ties.

Having said that, absolutely nobody will want to face the Reds either. If you’re AC Milan, Roma or indeed Leverkusen, you’d really fancy your chances of winning this competition.

Marseille as well have a good tradition in Europe and have used this season’s tournament as a good distraction from their poor league form.

But all of those sides – plus Atalanta, Benfica and maybe most of all West Ham – will know that Liverpool are the best side left in the hat.

As well as from Jurgen Klopp’s team, Leverkusen are of course bang in form. Remarkably, Alonso and co are still unbeaten across all competitions this season. That amounts to 37 games.

With the Spanish coach being highly touted to take over from Klopp next season, a match-up would obviously be full of narrative. At the very least, Alonso being back at Anfield for the first time in 15 years would be big in itself.

As the best two sides in the tournament, it would make for a perfect final, though. Liverpool will be pleased if they can avoid the Germans until then.

From our point of view, the best possible draw is probably West Ham. It feels a good bet that the Reds would beat the Hammers over two legs. Failing that though, we’ll simply take whatever comes. As they showed last night, this Liverpool team are bang up for winning this cup.