‘Calling it wrong’ – Joe Cole and Ally McCoist disagree on Liverpool’s Champions League chances | OneFootball

The 2025/26 Champions League begins in earnest next week, and Liverpool will have designs on winning the tournament as well as retaining their domestic title.

The Reds finished top of the new-look league phase in Europe’s premier club competition last season, only to be eliminated in the round of 16 by eventual champions Paris Saint-Germain in a penalty shootout at Anfield.

The Merseysiders haven’t made it to the quarter-finals since 2022, when they went on to lose the final to Real Madrid, and they’re widely expected to be among the leading contenders to lift the trophy in Budapest in eight months’ time.

Ahead of the Champions League commencing, TNT Sports held a roundtable discussion with some of their pundits to give their predictions for this season’s tournament, including whether Liverpool could go on to win it.

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Cole and McCoist assess Liverpool’s Champions League chances

Joe Cole replied: “I think they can. I’ve backed them massively at the start of the [Premier League] season…I think they can do it, but I think all the English teams could do it. Liverpool are probably the best-placed to do it.”

However, when Darren Fletcher suggested that the Reds might be England’s best hope of winning the Champions League in 2026, Ally McCoist voiced his disagreement by saying: “I think you’re possibly calling it wrong.

“Liverpool were fantastic last year, deservedly league winners and ran away with it, but I just think Arsenal defensively might be better at this moment in time than Liverpool. I think that could give them scope.

“The one thing Arsenal probably do better than most is defend, and that’s why they might be better [placed to win the Champions League].”

(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Liverpool should be England’s best hope of Champions League glory

As the reigning Premier League title holders and the only remaining team with a 100% record in the division this season, logic would suggest that Liverpool are the likeliest of the six English participants in the Champions League to lift the trophy next May.

It’s easy to say in hindsight, but had the Reds come up against anyone other than PSG in the round of 16 last term, they’d almost certainly have gone further in the tournament.

Knockout competitions can produce surprise winners, as we know from 2005 when we triumphed in Istanbul despite a dreadful fifth-place domestic finish that year.

However, the cream will usually rise to the top in the Champions League, particularly under its new format which enables a team to finish as low as 24th in the league phase and still progress to the knockout rounds.

The first priority for Liverpool will simply be to finish in the top eight by the end of January and advance directly to the last 16, thus avoiding a tricky play-off round in February.

We’re going with former Reds winger Cole on this one – we think the Reds represent England’s best chance this season of winning the competition for the fourth time in eight years.