After Liverpool’s 4-0 victory over West Ham, they know they’re just one win away from Champions League qualification.

Jurgen Klopp’s side host Middlesbrough on the final day of the season, hoping for three points that would secure a top-four finish.

However, it seems as though the Reds will have to settle for fourth, rather than third, with Manchester City likely to claim that if they pick up four points from their two remaining fixtures against West Brom (H) and Watford (A) with their slightly better goal difference.

While Liverpool fans will no doubt celebrate a fourth place finish, it means they will require a play-off to actually qualify for the group stages of the competition.

But who will that be against?

Well, talkSPORT have crunched the numbers and have come up with something very interesting.

Let’s assume Liverpool finish fourth. They will join nine other teams in the Play-off round.

The five winners of the two-legged tie will enter the Champions League group stage, while the losers will drop down into the Europa League.

The 10 teams will be made up of:

– Clubs that finish fourth in Spain, Germany and England
– Third in Italy and Portugal
– Five teams that have come through from the Third Qualifying Round

With us so far? Good.

Five of these teams will be seeded and they face the five non-seeded teams. The seedings are based on UEFA’s coefficient points and, with Liverpool not performing very well in Europe in recent years, they’re in real danger of becoming one of those unseeded teams.

While Manchester City and Arsenal would be guaranteed to be seeded, Liverpool are hoping for a bit of luck to avoid some big teams.

Here are the current rank of all the teams that have the possibility of entering the Champions League qualifiers. Liverpool will need to be in the top five in order to be seeded and avoid the so-called bigger clubs in the Play-off round.

The coefficients

1. Borussia Dortmund (124.899)
2. Sevilla (112.771)
3. Arsenal (105.021)
4. Manchester City (100.021)
5. Napoli (88.499)
6. Zenit (87.106)
7. Dynamo Kiev (67.526)
8. Ajax (64.092)
9. Liverpool (56.021)
10. Roma (53.566)
11. PSV Eindhoven (46.172)
12. Besiktas (45.840)
13. Viktoria Plzen (40.635)
14. CSKA Moscow (39.606)
15. Club Brugge (39.480)
16. Sporting (36.866)
17. Gent (35.480)
18. PAOK (35.080)
19. Young Boys (28.915)
20. Nice (16.766)
21. Istanbul Basaksehir (10.340)
22. Slavia Prague (8.135)
=23. Hoffenheim (0)
=23. Steaua Bucharest (0)

What do Liverpool need to become seeded?

Therefore, here’s what Liverpool need to happen to become a seeded side in the draw:

- The best chance of Liverpool being seeded is if Dortmund finish third, rather than fourth. Dortmund are third - level on points with fourth-placed Hoffenheim - and need to win to automatically qualify for the group stage. So, Liverpool fans should be desperate for Dortmund to beat Werder Breman on the final day of the season this weekend.

- Liverpool should also hope that Napoli can overtake Roma in Serie A. Napoli are one point behind them with two matches remaining. The reason being Liverpool have a better coefficient than Roma, but Napoli’s is higher.

- It would also help that CSKA Moscow finish second in Russia ahead of Zenit for the same reason. That is currently the case with CSKA one point above Zenit with two matches remaining.

- Liverpool don’t need any more reason to support Ajax in the Europa League final but they have one. If Ajax win, they will go straight into the Champions League group stage - meaning PSV will enter the qualifying rounds.

In reality, Liverpool need two of the above things to happen with Sevilla and Dynamo Kiev already confirmed in the qualification rounds - both of which have a higher coefficient than Liverpool.

Basically, Liverpool fans should be cheering for Dortmund, Napoli, CSKA Moscow and Ajax in the coming weeks.

Make sense?