Emery: We love this competition, our competition
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
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Sevilla boss Unai Emery was all smiles as he celebrated a third successive UEFA Europa League triumph, pinpointing the fans, Coke and a half-time reassessment.
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Unai Emery, Sevilla coach
We love this competition. It's our competition. Liverpool were on top in the first half and logically they could have beat us. But the opposite was also true. We felt a lot more confident after our first goal. At half-time we tried to reorganise our heads a little. The team took a step forward after that and then it was open season. We needed to be ourselves.
Our real success is what we have done on the way here. We’ve enjoyed this year in Europe and now we're enjoying being champions again. These moments are unique. We have to enjoy this moment while thinking about the Copa del Rey final on Sunday, but we have to enjoy this moment because the team deserve it.
We had to do something at half-time. Liverpool are a great team and settled quickly. We needed to have faith in ourselves. We needed to feel like we do in our own stadiums. The fans were absolutely amazing. They gave their all and with that we feel protected. Antonio Puerta was with us, too. Before the game we said we had to win it for them.
Coke can do anything. If he played as forward, he would score. I have more faith in him than he does in himself.
Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool manager
Sevilla's first goal was key, it influenced our game. We lost faith in our game plan and lost our way. We stopped keeping things simple and made it complicated. Suddenly we lost our shape. At times we showed what we can do, we were great in spells. But only short spells. We need to sustain it.
When it went to 1-1, Sevilla took control of the game and we defended poorly. We had time - we had 44 minutes to fight back - but we couldn't. We are disappointed, frustrated, but we will use this. This defeats means we're not in Europe next season. That means we have time to train and we will use it, we will come back stronger. We must use this experience.
I don't think God planned that I would get to finals and lose them. I've had a lot of luck in my life - I'm here, I'm a Liverpool coach. I will give my all to get to more final. There are worst things in life but, for sure, this hurts.
Coke, Sevilla captain and man of the match
Every time we fall down we have shown this season that we can get right back up. Unai Emery told us at half-time to have faith in the game plan. We had a wonderful start to the second half, scoring quickly, and we were terrific from then on. At times like this you think of your family, the people who pull you back on your feet when things aren't going your way. And the fans – Sevilla are great because of them. We played this as if it was the last game of the season - we know it isn't!