Gary Neville has doubled down on his prediction as to whether or not Liverpool will qualify for next season’s Champions League after the weekend’s Premier League action.
Although the Reds moved up one place to fifth on Sunday – a position which is likely to be sufficient for a place in Europe’s primary club competition next term – their 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur meant that they failed to fully capitalise on defeats for Chelsea and Aston Villa.
The latter were beaten 3-1 at Manchester United, who were the big winners in the Champions League race from the weekend and look increasingly likely to qualify for the tournament.
Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast on Sunday, the ex-Red Devils defender believes that Villa will ultimately be the team to finish outside the top five domestically, albeit that the Europa League might come to their rescue.
The Sky Sports pundit said of Unai Emery’s side: “Can they recover to keep that Champions League away from United, Liverpool and Chelsea? I’m not sure.
“I think they’ll miss out and I think they’ll end up in the Europa League places, but it would be amazing if they went and won the Europa League and got into the Champions League. I want to see them in the Champions League next season. I like Unai Emery a lot, I like Aston Villa a lot.”
A couple of weeks ago, Neville backed Liverpool to finish fourth in the table, and he’s doubled down on his belief that the Reds will clinch Champions League qualification despite dropping points to Wolves and Spurs this month.
With just two points separating them from an out-of-form Villa side who’ve taken one point from the last 12 on offer in the Premier League, Arne Slot’s team have a more than plausible chance of finishing inside the top four and not having to worry about whether England will get a fifth berth in Europe’s primary competition.
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However, after yet another exhibition of late self-sabotage yesterday, Dominik Szoboszlai warned that LFC could yet be lucky to even have Conference League football next season unless they address the problems which continue to dog them in the current campaign.
Liverpool play all three of their nearest Champions League-chasing rivals in consecutive weeks in May, and those head-to-heads could ultimately determine whether or not we finish on the right side of the dividing line.
There are several must-win Premier League fixtures to come in the meantime, though, starting with Brighton away next weekend. The Reds can’t afford to bank on their competitors slipping up in order to secure a top-five finish, not when they’ve so often failed to take care of their own business this term.
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