Jurgen Klopp is confident that Liverpool are capable of triumphing in the Europa League this season.

Liverpool's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League through a top four finish this season seem all but over and probably the most realistic path for the Reds to participate in Europe's elite club competition next term is by winning the Europa League.

Klopp has now acknowledged this fact and has gone on to confidently state that his Liverpool side are good enough to go all the way and lift the second tier European competition's crown this season.

Speaking ahead of the Round of 32 first leg clash against Augsburg, Klopp said, "A few teams in the world can think about winning the Europa League and I think we are one of these teams. We don't have to say 'we have no chance' but if you look at the teams in the competition now, it is like a little Champions League.

"Sometimes you can look at winning a cup as the shortest way to get somewhere but for sure, the Europa League is not the shortest way to get to the Champions League. It is a really hard race. The chance to qualify for the Champions League makes it more interesting - ask Sevilla (Europa League winners four times in the last 10 years), who would have qualified many times with this rule.

"We are in the last 32. We can see the line but I cannot say now, 'This is our only chance of being in the Champions League'. It's a chance. How many points in the league are we away from the Champions League? I think it is nine. So, yeah, at this moment I would say we have a better chance this way at the moment.

"Maybe the top-four clubs will have a crisis but we have to solve our own problems. We have to be at the highest motivation for the game without thinking about the last moment and knowing the possibility."