Three second half goals from Sevilla put an end to Liverpool’s dreams of Champions League football next season, with Jurgen Klopp’s side crashing out in disappointing fashion.
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The French striker equalised 17 seconds into the second period in Basel as Sevilla came from behind to beat Liverpool 3-1, courtesy of a second-half brace from skipper Coke.
Daniel Sturridge’s 35th minute strike was cancelled out by Kevin Gameiro before a double from Coke gifted the La Liga outfit their third Europa League title in a row.
Coke looked offside for his second goal, when Ever Banega’s pass came off a Liverpool player.
Liverpool likely should have been leading by more than Daniel Sturridge’s 35th-minute goal that sparked a strong finish to the first half.
In the build-up Liverpool’s players were at pains to stress how much belief Klopp has given them during his seven months in charge and how they had learned from the experience of losing February’s Capital One Cup to Manchester City. “It was an awesome night”, Sevilla defender Daniel Carrico said after his team secured a place in next season’s Champions League. It’s a very special week and we’ve started in the best way. “I don’t think God had a plan with me to go to the final and always have a knock”, said Klopp. I will try with all I have to reach the next final, even when you know you can lose it.
After being completely overrun in the second half at St Jakob-Park with no response the manager knows there is still some way to go on the education front.
“Today there were four decisive, obvious decisions and all were against us”. “To have this consistency in the game they need a little bit more time maybe”.
“It will be harder to attract the real star players to Liverpool”.
“We have had a lot of moments this season when we have played good football and known how to protect situations but if you saw at 1-1 we passed through small channels and lost the ball and you can not protect situations like this”, he said.
Sevilla coach Unai Emery joined former Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni as the only men to coach the Uefa Cup/Europa League winners three times – although the Italian did it with two clubs, Inter and Juventus.
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The most important thing with this team is our mental attitude. Obviously the first goal had a big impact on our team. There will be lessons learned, no doubt, but a third consecutive Europa League trophy for the Spanish side mean that the post mortem will have to wait as the celebrations begin.
