Liverpool's Europa League prize money so far revealed as Reds top group but end with defeat

Liverpool claimed top spot in their Europa League group as a young Reds side fell to a surprise defeat on Thursday night. The Reds were beaten 2-1 by Union Saint-Gilloise, who finished third in the group, and that was the Reds' second defeat of the competition this season.

Jurgen Klopp's men won four of their six games, and that was enough to edge Toulouse by a point, with top spot coming with plenty of benefits in the Europa League. Group winners get to skip the play-off knockout round, which pits group stage runners-up against the teams who finished third in their Champions League groups.

Liverpool will re-join the competition at the Round of 16 stage and face the winners from the play-off knockout round, avoiding their fellow Europa League group stage winners. The Reds also get extra prize money for finishing in top spot, and their prize kitty is already looking rather healthy.

Liverpool won €3.63million for reaching the group stage, while they will be awarded a further €1.1million for winning their group. They will also receive €1.7million for reaching the Round of 16 stage. The prize money doesn't end there, either, with UEFA also awarding €630,000 for every group stage win, meaning an extra €2.52million for Liverpool for their four wins.

All in all, that's a total prize money award of €8.95million (£7.68million) for Liverpool from the Europa League so far, and than add to that with every round they progress through in this competition. If Liverpool win the Europa League this season, they will have amassed €22.15million (£19.7million) in prize money along the way.

After the game on Thursday, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp said: “I mixed up the team completely, so I think the changes we made, the amount of changes, were too much for rhythm. I would never judge a player after a game like this and say, ‘OK, he’s obviously not good enough’ or whatever.

“I know how good they are because I see them every day in training and tonight is an important experience. I don’t think any career ever started without these kind of games where you have to struggle, where you have to fight through, where you have to survive.

“For some it was a really important experience and for others good for rhythm. I saw good performances. Of course as a team it is not a fair assessment if I say now they are top of the table in Belgium and we come here, bring kids – altogether that’s really difficult – but I thought we gave it a go and that’s OK for me. Nobody got hurt, nobody is injured, so we recover, go home and go again.”