Pot 2 was the giveaway. Pot 2 was the embodiment of how Europe’s richest clubs have fixed UEFA’s biggest tournament.
In pot 2 there were eight clubs, six of which had tried to break away to form a closed-shop Super League little more than a year ago.
Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Juventus are now all living their second-best lives. Only Sevilla and RB Leipzig were outside that nefarious scheme.
Yet discount Liverpool, for the moment. Liverpool were among the plotters but they were pot 2’s worthiest members.