Jurgen Klopp worked with Pep Lijnders during two stints (Image: Getty)
Liverpool could be set to meet their former No. 2 Pep Lijnders sooner than they might have thought after his new club Red Bull Salzburg qualified for the Champions League group stage.
Lijnders worked under Jurgen Klopp at Anfield for the best part of a decade across two separate spells before following the iconic Reds boss out of the Anfield exit door in June and was hired by the Austria's biggest club.
The Dutchman, 41, could now face Klopp's replacement Arne Slot in the opposite dugout if they are drawn against each other in the new competition format.
Salzburg secured a 1-1 draw against Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday, helping them to a 3-1 victory on aggregate to secure their passage to the Champions League proper.
Adam Daghim gave the Austrian side the lead after 12 minutes before Vladyslav Vanat equalised before the half-hour mark. But Salzburg had done the hard work in the first leg, winning 2-0 in Lublin, Poland thanks to an early striker from Nene Dorgeles and a Maurits Kjaergaard penalty.
Under the new format of Europe's elite club competition, teams will play eight matches in the new league phase, which is comprised of 36 teams.
Pep Lijnders is now head coach of Red Bull Salzburg (Image: Getty)
They will no longer play three opponents twice (home and away) in a four-team mini group, but will instead face eight different teams, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away.
To determine the eight different opponents, the teams will initially be ranked in four seeding pots. Each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.
The Reds have been placed in Pot 1, the highest seeding as the owners of the fifth-highest UEFA coefficient in the draw. Salzburg, meanwhile, are thrown into Pot 3 following their strong recent performance in the competition.
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Red Bull Salzburg celebrated a 3-1 aggregate win over Dynamo Kyiv (Image: Getty)
And that could set up Lijnders with an emotional reunion at Anfield just three months after his departure. He was already at Liverpool before Klopp's appointment, having arrived in 2014 as an assistant from FC Porto.
But he struck up a strong rapport with the German as they won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.
His brief foray into management with NEC Nijmegen ended abruptly after five months and he returned to his role at Liverpool in 2018. However, with Klopp announcing he was stepping down, Lijnders decided to try his hand at management once again with Salzburg.
He has already used his inside knowledge to improve his new team, with Reds starlet Bobby Clark completing a £10m transfer to Austria and teenager Stefan Bajcetic a loan target.
