Europa League Final 2016: Liverpool FC 1-3 Sevilla FC
Liverpool fell short to win the Europa League this season as Sevilla FC briongs home the trophy for the 3rd straight year. Liverpool played perfectly in the first-half leading 1-0 thanks to a superb goal from Sturridge. But the second half turned to be a nightmare conceeding 3 goals leading up to the defeat.
Coach Liverpool Jurgen Klopp comments the game:
It was obvious the first goal of Sevilla had a big influence on our own game. In this moment we lost faith in our style of play. We changed from passing simply and quickly to complicated. We lost our formation, so it was not compact anymore. We’ve had this situation one or two times before; as I said in the Chelsea game, we were quite happy we had the problem there. That was a good moment to put the finger in and change it. The first half was OK and we deserved the 1-0 [lead]. Sevilla played a lot of long balls to avoid our pressing game. We did OK but not as good as we can. This is interview number 10 or 12 that I’ve had [post-game] and everybody has told me about two handballs in the first half. Today there were four decisive decisions I would say, maybe a few more, but very obvious decisions that went against us. In a final, when it’s clear it is close, you need a little bit of luck. We didn’t. We have no influence on this, but where we have influence on is our game and so now we are disappointed and frustrated, 100 per cent.
Tomorrow, in a week or whatever we will see it a little bit more clearly and then we will use this experience. That’s what we have to do. Now it’s clear we are not in a European competition next year, it means no football on a Thursday and it means we have time to train. We will use it and we will come back stronger, that’s for sure. You saw on the way to the final we had a few moments where we maybe over-performed – we were unbelievable, great and the boys showed what they are capable of, but then to have this consistency you need a little bit more time. They are still young and this was their first big final – unfortunately their second [losing] final of the season, but it was a big final and we will use this experience together. Then someday everybody will say Basel was a very decisive moment for the wonderful future of Liverpool FC.
I tried to change it but you could see it was not only the team that was shocked about this situation; maybe the crowd was shocked about the situation [too]. Everything changed in this moment. We had a wonderful atmosphere until it went to 1-1, but then Sevilla took the game and we defended not good. For the first goal, usually it’s not good to concede a goal immediately after half-time but you have 44 minutes minimum to strike back, so what’s the problem? The reaction was the problem. We all have to learn to react better in situations like this. This game, especially in my situation as the manager of the team, all you have to do is self-criticism. Nothing else. It’s all about us, it’s all about me. It’s my job to help the players react better in different situations, so I can improve a lot.
