Tomorrow the final of the Europa League will take place, where the teams "Liverpool" and "Sevilla" will compete for the title. These matches will be extremely important for both teams, but one of them, coached by Jurgen Klopp, will have extra motivation in this match and will try to break his streak of unsuccessful finals.
If we don't count the German Super Cup matches, Klopp has reached the final a seventh time in his coaching career. After winning his first final in the German Cup 5-2 against "Bayern", the German did not take advantage of further opportunities to win trophies after reaching the final. This streak of unsuccessful finals of the Liverpool coach did not go unnoticed by journalists, who immediately asked a question about this streak after the victory in the semi-final against "Villarreal".
"I thought you would wait a bit before asking me about losing in the final. Why should I reach the final and then think about what will happen if we lose? I don't care. I will go there with one goal. Please don't ask me more about it," - the strategist snapped at journalists.
By the way, entering two more finals this season, Klopp continued his flawless record in semifinals - six victories out of six possible. After the victory against "Bayern" in 2011, with "Borussia" the coach reached two more finals in the German Cup in 2014 and 2015. In the first final, they lost after extra time to the same "Bayern" club, and in the 2015 final, which was Klopp's last at the helm of the Dortmund team, "Borussia" lost 1-3 to "Wolfsburg". However, the most painful defeat for Klopp with "Borussia" was in 2013 in England, when in the Champions League final, after a goal conceded in the 89th minute, they lost 1-2 to the aforementioned "Bayern" team.
"The only thing I can say is that they were great matches. London is the capital of the Olympic Games, the weather was good, everything was great. The only thing that was bad was the result," - said the former "Borussia" coach at the time after the failure.
Although this will already be Klopp's second final in just over half a year at the helm of Liverpool, this final will symbolize the entire team's season. Despite letting their main players rest in the Premier League matches before the Europa League battles, Klopp left the team in eighth place in the English championship, meaning the team did not fight for a European ticket in the Premier League competition. After the end of the Premier League battles, it is clear that the only way to Europe for the Liverpool team is victory on Wednesday in the Europa League final. The same league whose importance the coach emphasized from the very beginning of his time in England.
"When you play in the Champions League, you play on Wednesday and Saturday. What's the difference between that and playing on Thursday and Sunday? Is the only difference that you like one tournament more than the other? This tournament is really not a problem. It's a great tournament," - Klopp said in November after the victory against "Rubin".
On Wednesday, in the final, Liverpool will face a team that knows very well what it means to win the Europa League - Sevilla has already won the title two years in a row. Although this Spanish team seems difficult to stop in the Europa League matches, Klopp is not interested in the opponents' past titles - the coach knows very well that before every final, the club's history becomes insignificant.
"No team has an advantage. If you won this tournament last year, what does it mean? If you won it two years ago, what does it mean? Actually, it doesn't mean anything to you, these will be completely different matches. We didn't play against them last year in the final, we didn't play against them two years ago, so they will fight us for the first time. If anyone has an advantage, it's us, because in my opinion, we are different from other teams at the moment. We will try to exploit that," - said the German about the opponents.
A victory on Wednesday would not only break Klopp's streak of unsuccessful finals, but also allow Liverpool to return to the Champions League and continue to enjoy European matches next season. Only victory is the result that would make Klopp consider this season successful. And this is what the German coach wants, as he has already proven by ignoring the results in other fronts and resting the team's key players.
"That's why we arrived in Basel already on Monday. If I'm honest with you - we don't have much to do. At the moment, there is nothing more important to us. Now there is no need to increase the already high pressure on us. Now the most important thing is to create the right atmosphere."
Ready to create that atmosphere are about 26,000 Liverpool fans who have planned a flight to Switzerland. Although only 10,600 places are allocated for the red fans at the "St. Jakob-Park" stadium, it is certain that the remaining supporters will try by all means to get tickets to these matches. It is certain that every enthusiast watching the final live will do everything to make Liverpool feel at home, and Jurgen Klopp could forget what it means to feel "bad" after the final.
The Europa League final is tomorrow at 9:45 pm. The match will be broadcast live on the Viasat Sport Baltic channel.
Tautvydas Sakalauskas
