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Just 59 days have passed since Liverpool's Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid.

Yet their dreams of a second successive final bow - with Atletico Madrid's Metropolitano the destination on June 1 - technically start tonight.

This season's competition has already begun and enters its second qualifying stage on Tuesday.

And one of the teams in action, Basel, could determine whether Liverpool begin their road to Madrid in either Pot 2 or Pot 3.

The Swiss side, who finished second in their domestic league last season, will travel to Greece to face PAOK in the first leg - with Liverpool hoping for Basel's elimination to boost their ranking.

As ever, it's all about coefficients, the means by which UEFA determine the rankings of clubs in their competitions.

During the course of a season, a club is given ranking points for reaching various points of either the Champions League or Europa League, and for winning or drawing games in each competition.

The total over a rolling five-year period is determined as being a club's coefficient. The better a club do during that timescale, the higher their coefficient value, and the further up the rankings they are.

That becomes significant when seedings are determined for the various draws in the competitions.

For Liverpool, that means this season's Champions League group stage, for which they have automatically qualified by finishing fourth in the Premier League.

(Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Liverpool were in Pot 3 in last season's competition.

The first pot of eight teams has been determined, containing the champions of the top six ranked national leagues – Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Lokomotiv Moscow – along with the Champions League winners, Real Madrid, and the Europa League holders Atletico Madrid.

However, Liverpool still have a chance of Pot 2, which already contains the likes of Benfica, Borussia Dortmund and Napoli.

The remaining three pots are determined entirely on UEFA coefficient – the higher a club's total, the higher the pot the club is placed in.

At present, Liverpool are ranked below 10 other teams, including Tottenham Hotspur.

However, if Basel and Benfica, ahead of Liverpool in the coefficent rankings, fail to negotiate the qualifying rounds, the Reds will be bumped up to Pot 2.

If Basel progress against PAOK over two legs - the second leg to be played Wednesday, August 1, they will still need to navigate two further rounds of the 'league path', which comprises of teams who did not win their domestic leagues.

Victory for Basel will see them progress to the third qualifying round against Spartak Moscow, who suffered a 7-0 defeat at Anfield last season.

That round sees Benfica - given a bye due to Portugal's overall coefficient - enter the frame with a tricky test against Fenerbache.

Those ties will be played on August 7/8, with the return leg on August 14.

If Benfica and Basel progress from their respective ties, then they will face one final qualifying round, where the winners of the two ties progress into the group stage.

If both fail to do that, Liverpool will be in Pot 2.

They did, of course, reach the final having started in Pot 3 last season.

Other teams who could stand in the way of Basel and Benfica progressing include Ajax, Dynamo Kiev and Standard Liege.

Provisional Champions League group draw pots 2018/19

Pot 1: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Lokomotiv Moscow

Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund, FC Porto, Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica*, Napoli, FC Basel*, Tottenham Hotspur

Pot 3: Roma, Liverpool, Schalke, Lyon, Monaco, FC Salzburg*, CSKA Moscow, Ludogorets Razgrad*

Pot 4: Inter Milan, Valencia, Hoffenheim - plus all other qualifying teams, including Celtic*.

*Denotes teams who have to get through qualifying to make Champions League group stage.