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If Jurgen Klopp was struggling for an early night ahead of his flight to La Manga this afternoon, he would have no doubt flicked over to Estadio da Luz, to Benfica v Borussia Dortmund, to the Champions League.

The Liverpool boss is always keen to keep in touch with his former club’s fortunes, and the pinnacle of European football is where the German aspires to take the Reds once more.

It was a no-brainer. Better than Eastenders, at least.

He might have soon regretted it. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would miss a penalty as Dortmund lost their first leg to the Portuguese side 1-0.

More regret would have followed if Klopp decided not to channel hop to events at Parc des Princes. Paris St-Germain eviscerated Barcelona 4-0, producing a dominating performance from start-to-finish.

Barca – Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez included – looked mortal. Their shine was dulled in the most dramatic fashion. After years of relative dominance, this felt like a seismic result. If PSG complete the job at Camp Nou in March, it will represent the first time the Catalans have failed to reach the quarter finals of the competition since 2006/07.

Liverpool were to blame for that, much like it was the Reds who last inflicted a four-goal defeat on Luis Enrique’s side, albeit in a friendly.

Klopp would have watched PSG’s hammering with no fear, no trepidation. He possesses none of that anyway, but he would have witnessed a potential power shift in European football.

Too soon to herald that after just one result? Perhaps. But in truth, the control of the Champions League’s big three – Barca, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich – has started to relinquish.

If Liverpool are to qualify for the Champions League, they will enter a landscape dissimilliar from the one they departed in 2010.

Since that campaign, when the Reds were dumped out at the group stage, there have been six seasons.

Just four clubs have won the trophy, with Chelsea’s 2012 win the only buffer of total autonomy from the three powerhouses – and that came on penalties against Bayern.

In that time, just eight clubs have participated in the final, with a further two featuring at the semi-final stage.

No club outside England, Spain, Germany and Italy have reached the last four since 2010, with even more recent history skewered towards La Liga and the Bundesliga. Since Chelsea’s win in Munich, just one Premier League side have made the semi-finals – Manchester City, defeated semi-finalists last season – with Juventus the only Serie A representative, losing the final to Barca in 2015.

As the monsters of Europe have devoured the not-so-small-but-smaller-than-them small fry – because hearts cannot bleed for teams in the top 20 of the Deloitte Money League failing to reach the final four – Liverpool have lurked in the shadows.

There has been no better time to do so. It is always preferable to be in the competition than out of it, but winning a sixth European Cup in the past seven years would have been an unrealistic ambition. Their one season in the Champions League, 2014/15, exposed their flaws on the continental stage; that season, the semi-finals were comprised of Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. The big boys back in town, and the only show in it once again.

But those solid foundations have started to creek, if not crumble, and it isn’t just Barcelona who are struggling.

Real finished second to Borussia Dortmund in this season’s group stage, needed a last-minute winner to beat Sporting at the Bernabeu and were held at Legia Warsaw. Bayern, meanwhile, were second to Atletico Madrid – no disgrace, of course – with the Germans suffering a defeat to Russian side FC Rostov.

Messi cannot last forever, nor can Cristiano Ronaldo. Once playing on a different level to anybody else on the planet, other world stars have started to bridge the gap.

It is being touted as one of the most open competitions in years. Napoli are being tipped to give Real headaches in the last 16, Sevilla and Juventus have been in superb form domestically, while the winner of the tie between Manchester City and Monaco can be considered dark horses.

Indeed, Dortmund’s defeat to Benfica, while no means terminal to their hopes, demonstrates the strengthening of the Portuguese club’s hopes, too.

There has not been a final without the big three since 2008, when Manchester United and Chelsea played in Moscow. The possibility of that happening this year has moved closer with Barca’s capitulation in the French capital.

And so, to Liverpool, who have largely flailed in the choppy Europa League waters – a competition whose success stories are diverse and disconcerting over the past decade, save Sevilla’s love for the trophy.

If they are to return to the Champions League next season, they will enter an arena where the giants’ noses are bloodied, their egos bruised, their self-belief in doubt. To paint the Reds as David against football’s Goliaths would be insincere, but no longer does Europe’s top table feel so exclusive.

There is potential, absolutely, to revert to the Champions League that existed at the turn of the millenium. Money talks and always will, but sides are becoming smarter in how to equip themselves against the best.

Back then, the likes of Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Porto, Monaco and Arsenal reached the final; that’s to say nothing of Liverpool and Djimi Traore, of course, in 2005.

Klopp knows all about that, too. In 2013, his Dortmund side’s path to the final was celebrated as a victory for boxing clever, even if their style was akin to throwing off their gloves and trading haymakers with the heavyweights.

Liverpool have to earn the right of that opportunity first, something they will spend the final 13 games of the campaign trying to do.

And though it is not such a romantic notion, establishing themselves would be the utmost priority, as would ensuring their stay was not as brief as the six games under Brendan Rodgers.

But with Barca, Real and Bayern starting to show their glass jaws, there’s no harm in swinging. Timing could be everything, and the Reds might have timed their absence – and possible return – to perfection.