If I had to bet on just one team, I'd bet on Liverpool as favorites
Even if, as in your example, one of the 3 teams (Liverpool, Leverkusen and Milan) meet in the quarter-finals
But it's not absolute favoritism on the part of the English team, at least in my opinion. Even though Xavi Alonso has less experience as a coach, he has plenty as a player and that could help
To me the classification will be like that:
Classified in bold
Sparta Prague v Liverpool
Marseille v Villarreal
Roma v Brighton
Benfica v Rangers
Freiburg v West Ham
Sporting v Atalanta
AC Milan v Slavia Prague
Qarabag v Leverkusen
These are good predictions with I have to be agreed with six without any doubt but here I am feeling two matches are going to be not easy because these teams are on level and also having good current performance level like Sporting vs Atlanta both are on good level and most chances we will have this match going to be ended on penalties because Atlanta is also on good run and their current performance level is also at the top.
Marseille vs Villarreal is also going to be tough match here I am favouring Marseille because as they perform against Ukrainian side with this level of performance they can beat Villarreal as well which is currently in bad shape and their performance level in La Liga is not good Marseille is also having problems but their fightback against Shakhtar was impressive which give them good advantage.