‘Liverpool are a UCL team’ – Sparta boss feels his side shouldn’t have faced Reds as Prem title claim made
Sparta Prague manager Brian Priske has detailed how Liverpool “should be in the Champions League,” not playing against his side, and the “different level” club will “maybe be Premier League winners” soon.
The Reds’ Europa League tie with Sparta was a mismatch in every sense of the word. They stuck five goals past their Czech opponents in the first leg and followed that up with a six-goal performance in the next.
The aggregate score finished 11-2 to the Premier League giants, and Sparta manager Priske hailed the Reds for their dominant victory over his team.
“We faced a world-class team. It’s a completely different level to something we’ve played against this season. We’ve played against good teams, Betis, Rangers, last qualification round against Galatasaray but Liverpool are a completely different level,” he said after the game.
“We’ve never faced something like this, and maybe there will be some time until we do it again.”
Indeed, Priske does not feel Liverpool should even be playing in the Europa League, as they could comfortably have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League this season.
“But Liverpool are a Champions League team and they should be in the Champions League, they’ll maybe be in the semi-finals, they’ll maybe be Premier League winners in two months,” Priske added.
“We saw the individual quality, it’s a different level. Big, big respect to the players of Liverpool and the whole coaching staff, in some aspects it was nice to see.”
The Reds have reached the final of the Champions League three times in the last six seasons, as such, Priske is probably right that their quality would allow them to get to the latter stages of the tournament if not for a lean run last season ensuring they did not qualify.
They are level on points with table-topping Premier League side Arsenal, so are undoubtedly a level above most sides they will meet in the Europa League.
It would be difficult to suggest there is a side that can topple them, and unfortunately for Sparta, they were simply in Liverpool’s way en route to the trophy.
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