SPORT: What Liverpool fans are tweeting after being drawn against Porto in the Champions League

Xabi Alonso.

Gary Lineker summed up the Champions League last-16 draw perfectly on Twitter.

“Real Madrid v PSG, Chelsea v Barcelona and Spurs v Juventus are mouth-watering ties in the last 16 of the Champions League. Ooooft!,” Lineker tweeted.

For the neutral, it was the perfect draw. Those three aforementioned matches should be enthralling.

Elsewhere, Manchester City will take on Basel, Manchester United go up against Sevilla, Liverpool face Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk will battle Roma for a place in the quarter-final and Bayern Munich take on Besiktas.

Toni Kroos also said what every football fan is saying.

So, barring Chelsea, some decent draws for the English sides. There’s a great deal of confidence that at least three Premier League sides will reach the quarter-final.

Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp will be particularly happy. The Reds could have been drawn against Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Juventus, but they managed to avoid those three and got Portuguese outfit Porto instead.

Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet seems buoyed, calling it a “decent draw” on Twitter.

What Liverpool fans are saying on Twitter

And it’s left Liverpool fans thanking Xabi Alonso, who pulled their name out of the pot in Nyon.

Alonso was part of the team that won the Champions League in 2005. He scored the goal that made it 3-3 before Andriy Shevchenko missed the penalty that handed Liverpool the trophy.

Liverpool supporters feel that Alonso has helped them out once more by giving them a favourable draw.

Admiration for Xabi Alonso just grows and grows. He’s still assisting Liverpool even though he’s retired. Pleased with that draw!

— Amit Singh (@Amit_8_) December 11, 2017

Klopp’s side finished top of Group E, winning three and drawing three of their matches and scoring a whopping 23 goals in the process.

Yet the competition will only get tougher from here and Liverpool face a Porto side that defeated French champions Monaco 5-2 in their final group game.

Klopp believes his potent attack can trouble any defence in Europe.

“If we perform like this, if we are that clinical, then yes we can [strike fear into opponents],” he said after the 7-0 win over Maribor last week, per The Guardian.

“But we had the same players before and they didn’t score and then it is not that we talk like this.

“That is not a criticism of the past. If we perform like this then we are a threat, 100 per cent.

“And if you see how Dom Solanke performed at Stoke, how Daniel Sturridge performed when he came on tonight – he could have scored two or three and he made a goal for Sadio – that’s good.”