Jurgen Klopp hails “wonderful night” for Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp has praised Liverpool‘s “brilliant” performance after seeing his side book their place in the final of the Europa League.
The Reds, trailing by an Adrian Lopez goal heading into Thursday evening’s return match with Villarreal, largely dominated the second leg and came out on top comfortable 3-1 aggregate winners in the end.
Strikes from Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana in the second half, coming after Bruno Soriano had opened the scoring with an own goal seven minutes in, was more than enough for Liverpool to seal their place in this month’s final against Sevilla.
Klopp was delighted by the spirit shown by his side, which will now seen their season prolonged by another few days as he prepares for the May 18 showdown at St Jakob Park.
“It was a wonderful night; a brilliant game from my side,” he told BT Sport. “What a performance. The first half-hour was a big emotion. It was great. The last 15 minutes of the first half we lost patience.
“I came here because I thought they had a nice squad but now we are in the final – a longer season! We go to Basel, where we’ll take 50k, 60k – maybe 100k. It is a nice city by the way, close to my home.”
Sevilla secured their passage into the final by seeing off Shakhtar Donetsk 5-3 over two legs in the other final-four affair.
