Last night’s Europa League final ended in disaster for Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool side after Sevilla came from a goal down to claim a hat-trick of Europa League final victories, their fifth triumph in the tournament in the last 10 years.
Whilst the Merseyside’s started nervously on the night, they seemingly had the edge of the Spanish side with talented trio Coutinho, Firmino and Sturridge particularly menacing. And it would be the England international that would give Klopp’s side a 30th minute lead, the striker converting with a superb outside of the boot flick from the edge of the area.
The Reds went into the break with a 1-0 lead, confident of an equally successful second half. Sevilla however had other ideas and set about dismantling Liverpool in a maddening 25 minutes.
Kevin Gameiro equalized just 19 seconds into the 2nd half with former Sevilla man Alberto Moreno cruelly nutmegged in the buildup to the goal.
An incident that drove Jamie Carragher to tweet, then delete, this.
Jamie Carragher has already deleted his #Moreno tweet #lfc #LFCvSev #EuropaLeagueFinal pic.twitter.com/MnAjEvwlkc
— DoTheSturridge (@DoTheSturridge) May 18, 2016
The Andalusians looked progressively menacing and grabbed two goals via captain Coke to truly knock the stuffing out of the Reds.
In all it was rather hard to take the defeated, especially for Jurgen Klopp who pointed the finger at the referee, Jonas Eriksson, at the final whistle for missing two handballs inside the Sevilla penalty area earlier in the game, disallowing a second Liverpool goal and allowing Sevilla’s third.
In all Liverpool played a decent game, but poor performances by their backline were the real difference. Whilst it will hurt now, you still feel the side are on an upward trajectory under Klopp.
When you lose five finals in a row https://t.co/pXoC4nGJPi
— Football Funnys (@FootballFunnys) May 18, 2016
More worrying scenes however marred the occasion as both sections of fans scuffled inside St Jakob Park ahead of the game.
#UELfinal pic.twitter.com/nL4uV18Rtg
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) May 18, 2016