Liverpool Lose Final After Second Half Collapse

Liverpool have lost the Europa League final 3-1 to Spanish side Sevilla, meaning they miss out on European football next season.

The Reds seemed well placed to win a first European trophy in 11 years at half-time, when they led 1-0 courtesy of an exquisite Daniel Sturridge strike.

But Sevilla equalised 18 seconds after the restart through forward Kevin Gameiro, and went on to add two more goals through right-back and captain Coke to wrap up a third straight Europa League triumph.

The third goal proved controversial, after an assistant signalled an apparent offside against Coke, but then lowered his flag.

Liverpool also had three penalty appeals waved away in the first half.

The result was a bitter blow for the more than 20,000 Liverpool fans who had made it into St Jakob-Park in the Swiss city of Basel - despite an official allocation of 12,000 tickets.

A win would have seen the Reds earn a place in the group stages of next season's Champions League, but instead Klopp's men will have to focus on the Premier League and domestic cup competitions next term.

The Reds boss said after the game that he hoped his side can learn from the loss.

Klopp told BT Sport: "We did not defend well and were nervous and that shows our development is not as good as we hoped but we will use this experience to be stronger and I am sure we will be stronger if we use it in the right way, but for tonight it is disappointment and frustration.

"Tonight we couldn't reach the level and it is my job to help the boys use these opportunities.

"I am responsible for this performance too, so no criticism for my players tonight."

Liverpool captain James Milner said their second half performance was not good enough.

He said: "I am devastated at losing the game but I think the most disappointing thing is in the second half we didn't show what we are about, we played nowhere near our abilities, that's the biggest thing for me.

"We were ready, we made sure we wanted to do the right things, everyone was switched on, we just didn't show it.

"We have come out and given a sloppy goal away in the first few seconds of the second half and never really got back in the game after that."

It is the second cup final defeat for Liverpool this season, having lost the Capital One Cup final to Manchester City on penalties.