UEFA Europa League: Liverpool 1-3 Sevilla

Liverpool’s dream run in the UEFA Europa League came to a crashing halt as they failed to secure the win against Sevilla in the Final of the Europa League at St. Jakob’s Park in Basel. The game began brightly as Liverpool went for the jugular, throwing several well-orchestrated attacks at Sevilla.

Daniel Sturridge finished with panache to put the ball past the Sevilla keeper and Liverpool into the lead towards the end of halftime. Liverpool went into the half time content with their performance. What followed typified the final in so many ways as a game of two halves.

Sevilla flew out of the blocks in the second half, blitzing in a goal within the opening 30 seconds of the second period. Gameiro equalized before Coke put Sevilla into the lead before long. Sevilla then worked out a fantastic goal to seal the game as Jurgen Klopp looked on in dismay.

Let’s have a look at the game’s talking points.

#1 Daniel Sturridge is World Class

You would be forgiven for having forgotten how good Daniel Sturridge really was over the course of the season. Having struggled with injuries for the best part of the year, he had to contend with the rise of Divock Origi for the rest of the season as he often found himself on the Liverpool bench.

Jurgen Klopp was rumored to have been not very pleased with Sturridge’s attitude in training and his lack of pressing on the pitch. Klopp fielded question after question on the English striker each game and the forward himself seemed to be fairly unhappy.

However, after re-establishing himself at the top of his game in the Liverpool starting XI, you want to see him prove exactly how good he is with a performance in a final. Make no mistake, Liverpool may have capitulated but Daniel Sturridge came out of the game having enhanced his reputation with a goal scored by him that may well remain in Liverpool fans’ memories for long even if the match itself would be too painful to remember.

Sturridge took the ball and shifted his weight to activate his favored left foot in a flash after driving in from Sevilla’s right-hand side into the box. In a matter of seconds, he drove in, shifted his weight to his right to stand and hit the ball with tremendous power and turn with the outside of his left boot.

The ball curled past Soria into the net. One finish spoke volumes of the player he is when fit, Liverpool’s best in fact.

#2 Unai Emery will be a wanted man in the summer

Football managers are not that hard to find, but Unai Emery is a special one, of that there is no doubt. Emery led Sevilla to their third Europa League title in a row and he has helmed all three triumphs. The relatively young Spanish coach is in line to be pursued heavily in the summer with a string of managerial jobs to be on offer all around.

On this night, he didn’t really outfox Jurgen Klopp tactically as much as he outlasted his effect on his team. It was a necessary halftime talk that saw a different Sevilla come out to play.

A more confident Sevilla turned on the heat with players indulging in a blitz styled attack to level it up in a mere 30 seconds of game restarting and hereon, Emery orchestrated the crowd as they backed their team and the Andalucian outfit outplayed the opposition on the pitch.

Make no mistake, Emery is a tactically adept manager with his prowess in Spain unparalleled by most, he is the complete package and Sevilla may well have a fight on their hands to keep him at the club. After this, you would not be surprised if Everton put in a cheeky approach for the man who denied their bitter rivals a European triumph.

#3 Philippe Coutinho is not Barcelona material yet

With all due respect to the Philipe Coutinho fans out there, the player has been way too erratic for too many seasons now for one to categorize him as a world class player. He has in him, bits and pieces of magic, that can prove useful in unlocking opponents but he goes missing far too much in the bigger games for too long.

Such was the case with the little Brazilian on the night as barring a couple of moments of involvement, Coutinho could hardly be noticed on the ball all game. For an attacker who plays between a midfield and forward line, he should’ve dropped deeper to collect the ball more often and should have tried to dictate play from deep rather than drifting from side to side and returning only to support a hapless Alberto Moreno defensively.

It is this point of efficacy that puts Philipe Coutinho in a category somewhere between good and world class and if he hopes to be one of the best players on the planet someday, he needs to regularly inch towards the World Class than remain on the line that says good.

Till then, Liverpool fans could breathe easily to an extent as their diminutive forward is a really good season away from any Barcelona like club moving for him.

#4 UEFA needs to get its refereeing act together

Any manager other than Jurgen Klopp would’ve made it a point to let it rip at the officials for having officiated in the most haphazard way possible. The final could have been marred by poor decision making in the first half, even if in the second half things did seem a whole lot better on the officiating front.

The officials got a lot right, including a disallowed Dejan Lovren goal and allowing the first goal from Coke but a barrage of handballs in the Sevilla box, had they been adjudicated as penalties, we would’ve seen a different winner on the night.

The three handballs may have been debatable whether they were deliberate or not (even if two of them seemed completely deliberate) but what cannot be denied is that they all impeded goal scoring opportunities. Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson may have been a little more careful about those decisions.

The truth remains that it is in such matters that UEFA needs a better set of guidelines for referees as to their line of action and the set of considerations in the split second before it. It isn’t an easy job, refereeing, not by a stretch but for better refereeing, we would’ve seen a different game.

#5 Jurgen Klopp has got some rebuilding to do

The fervor around Liverpool’s drive into the finals of the UEFA Europa League could have been blinding enough to make Jurgen Klopp think that Liverpool indeed are not that far off from the due quality that he will demand of them in the next season.

If that were the case, Jurgen Klopp must be seeing clearly now since Sevilla reminded Liverpool rather rudely that Liverpool may have quality but lack the final pegs and the raw mentality that makes champions.

Jurgen Klopp has to rebuild this team even if he doesn’t have to do it from scratch. He has to remove Alberto Moreno from the starting eleven and pull in a worthy competitor for big games at left back. He has to either, bring out the best in Coutinho regularly or consider using him as a luxury than a necessity.

He has to grow Emre Can up in terms of his maturity as a player in big games. Klopp also has to find him a due partner in midfield as James Milner has all the graft in the world but doesn’t possess the quality to hold a two-man pivot in place with a player like Emre Can alongside him.

He has to rebuild Liverpool’s defense centrally as well, considering the players lack that World Class touch. The good news is, he can do it peacefully without having to worry about a whole set of extra games as Liverpool do not go into any European Competition next season which isn’t as bad as it looks.