Liverpool and Tottenham facing contrasting Europa League group-stage draws

Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur will face a contrasting standard of opposition in the Europa League group stage after the seeded teams for next season's second tier continental tournament were confirmed.

The Reds are ranked outside the top eight in Uefa's coefficient standings out of the teams who have already clinched automatic qualification for the competition, meaning even ahead of the four-stage preliminary qualifying process they will miss out being one of the seeded teams.

Tottenham are inside the top eight and as things stand are assured of being seeded alongside Schalke, Napoli, Villarreal, Marseille, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Braga and Fiorentina but the qualifying process could see that group broken up.

Should they progress through the third qualifying and play-off rounds, both 2012 European Cup finalists Borussia Dortmund and Athletic Bilbao will fill two of those eight places, while the likes of Sporting Lisbon, CSKA Moscow and Lazio could yet be included if they are knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers.

That means that while Tottenham are set to be protected for the group stage draw on 28 August in Monaco, Liverpool face a potentially tricky draw against a seeded nation, with the Merseyside club set to be drawn from pot two.

Despite the prospect of five teams who possess a greater Uefa coefficient ranking qualifying for the Europa League, Liverpool would avoid the ignominy of being placed into the third pot which is reserved for Europe's minnows, with Brendan Rodgers's side currently ranked 10<sup>th.

Each team's Uefa coefficient is calculated by their success in the last five seasons of European competition and though Tottenham have failed to make it past the Europa League quarter-finals in the past four campaigns, their last-eight appearance in the Champions League in the 2010-11 term still holds some weight.

Spurs were ranked third by Uefa ahead of the 2014 draw but only qualified as runners-up from their group behind Besiktas, with the resulting draw against Fiorentina seeing them knocked out of the competition at the first knockout round.

Liverpool, meanwhile, dropped into the Europa League after a group-stage exit from the Champions League but they also failed to make it past the last 32, being knocked out by Besiktas on penalties.