Liverpool legend Steve McMahon has revealed that he would have not been opposed to the Reds being drawn to face Tottenham Hotspur in the last eight of the Champions League.
With four Premier League sides reaching the quarter-final stage in the Champions League, Liverpool headed into Friday's draw faced with the real prospect they could have been paired with an English team.
In the event, Jurgen Klopp's men were handed a two-legged tie against Portuguese powerhouses FC Porto.
McMahon is happy enough with the Porto tie, but admits if an English side had come out of the hat then he would have wanted it to be Tottenham.
McMahon, dismissing any notion a Champions League exit would have been good for the Reds, said on LFC TV's preview show: "People said would going out of the Champions League help [us in the league]? No way. It is a bonus now..
"If we could have had any of those English clubs [in the quarter-finals], Tottenham would have been the one for me.
"I think they are going through a bad phase.
"But we are good enough to beat any of them.
"It''s [the draw] OK. Porto first."
The former Reds midfielder also believes that Liverpool were the team in the draw that no other side wanted to be paired with.
"I bet you all of the other seven teams in the draw were saying don't get Liverpool, we don't want Liverpool."
Liverpool will start as big favourites to see off Porto in the last eight and progress into the semi-finals of a competition they were finalists in last term.
Tottenham will face Manchester City in the last eight.
