Liverpool FINALLY get brilliant reward for finishing top of the Champions League

Liverpool have finally gotten their reward for winning the UEFA Champions League league phase. It wasn't obvious at all.

UEFA debuted a new format for the Champions League this year. It wasn't one met with wild scenes of celebration, however.

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The group phase disappeared to be replaced by a 'league phase'. That saw all teams bundled into one big league, playing eight essentially random teams of vaguely equal quality each, and then the top eight qualified for the last 16.

The next 16 then played a playoff round to determine the opponents for that top eight. It was convoluted and led to an incredible number of pointless matches.

Manchester City, for instance, managed to lose three of their eight matches and draw another two. Just three wins from eight, in other words - but they still qualified for the playoffs.

Liverpool had a much better record. They won seven straight fixtures before losing at PSV Eindhoven in their final game with a weakened squad.

It was enough to top the league - the first ever 'winners' of that phase. Their reward for that? A tie against Paris Saint-Germain, arguably the most in-form team in Europe.

No, it didn't feel like a reward for being the best team in the league. It almost felt like a punishment to see them drawn against the Reds while eighth-placed Aston Villa got two meetings with Club Brugge.

But Liverpool are finally getting to see their reward for winning the league phase. Yes, there actually was one.

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The Anfield fortress

It's a very minor reward and ridiculously, one that everyone inside the top eight gets, but Liverpool were always guaranteed to play the second leg at home in the last 16. They'll do so tonight against PSG.

And while for the likes of Arsenal (7-1 up against PSV) and Villa (3-1 up against Brugge) that home advantage barely matters, it's a massive deal for Liverpool. To the point where they may have gone out if they didn't have it.

The away leg in Paris was played under the knowledge that the Anfield leg was still to come. It allowed Liverpool to play with a level of confidence and calm, that any semi-decent result was good enough.

That composure led to the winner, essentially. Now Liverpool play PSG at home knowing they can't afford to take their foot off the gas at all.

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Flip the fixtures and things feel very different. The Reds may have wasted the Anfield leg a bit, playing it with a slight underestimation of PSG.

After all, PSG certainly caught them off-guard in Paris. Liverpool are fortunate they did top the group and that they weren't caught off-guard at Anfield.

Liverpool play PSG with a 1-0 lead at Anfield and in full knowledge of what they're up against. That's the best possible way to play them and it could well be the difference between progressing and elimination.

Yes, finishing 8th would have given them this, too. But Liverpool guaranteed this advantage nice and early by winning the league phase - now they can take advantage.

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