Liverpool won't celebrate drawing Real Madrid, but it could be much worse

There's a friend of mine who has the curious habit of buying lottery tickets with no intention of actually checking the numbers until the ticket is about to expire. At which point, he buys a new lottery ticket, and starts the cycle all over.

The guy isn't an idiot: he knows he isn't likely to have a winning ticket sitting in his wallet all month long. But as long as he hasn't checked it yet, the chance is still there.

That suspension of disbelief allows him to go about his day basking in the glory of a lottery win that probably isn't going to come...but might.

It's a bit like Liverpool with this season's Champions League. With Bayern, PSG, Man City and Real Madrid all still in the competition, the chances of Jurgen Klopp's struggling Reds going all the way seem perilously slim.

But as long as they haven't been eliminated yet, there's a chance.

That sort of optimistic thinking is just what Liverpool fans need to maintain some interest in a calamitous season to this point, so when the time came for Friday's quarter-final draw, there was plenty of interest from Merseyside.

There might have been a wince or two when their came out of the bowl of balls directly after Real Madrid, but it really could have been much worse.

Real's name carries a certain weight in the Champions League - so it should, given that they've won the thing 13 times - but Liverpool have successfully avoided each of the four teams most fancied to go all the way and win the trophy in Istanbul.

Not only that, but Bayern Munich, Man City and PSG have each ended up on the opposite side of the draw. Klopp's side won't have to worry about any of them unless they reach another final...by which point it's a one-off shootout.

They can't look past Madrid, of course. You'd probably even take Zinedine Zidane's team as favourites, given their superior domestic record this season and their famed recent history in the competition.

But they aren't the force they were just a few years ago when Liverpool faced them in Kyiv, and their record in Europe this season - stumbling through Group B before sleepwalking past Atalanta in the round of 16 - suggests they are there for the taking.

Liverpool have work to do before they get to the first leg at the Bernabeu on 6 April. There have been signs of recovery at Anfield, as back-to-back wins for the first time since January saw them sign off for the international break with a relieved sigh, but there is no doubt they will have to step their game up another gear for the battle of the titans in a couple of weeks' time.

If they can summon the sort of performance that saw them blow away Bundesliga title-chasing Leipzig in the last round, though, then they stand a very good chance of facing either Chelsea or Porto in the semi-finals.

And who knows what happens from there? They might just have the winning ticket after all.

For now, though, Klopp will be keeping it tucked away in his pocket and dreaming of the best.