Liverpool 1-3 Sevilla: Jurgen Klopp cities poor referring behind Reds' Europa League final defeat

Liverpool suffered a defeat, despite taking a first half lead in the Europa League final.

Jurgen Klopp has expressed his frustration and criticised the referee after citing "four decisive decisions" were given against Liverpool in their 3-1 defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League final at St Jakob-Park, Basel on Wednesday.

Daniel Sturridge gave the Reds a lead before going into a break with a sublime goal. However, Sevilla equalised less than a minute after the start of the second half before Coke's brace helped the La Liga outfit beat the English side.

It was Sevilla's third straight success in the Europa League and their latest win saw them seal a berth in the group stages of next season's Champions League.

The result could have been different if the Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson had not turned a blind eye for three handball appeal in the first half inside Sevilla's box, which could have resulted in three penalties for the Liverpool.

"Today there were four decisive, obvious decisions and all were against us. In a final when it's close you need a little luck and we didn't have it. If it was 2-0 at half-time it's different," Klopp explained, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"Now we are frustrated but tomorrow or in a week we will see it more clearly and we will use it. We are out of international competitions [next season], there's not a lot of football on Wednesdays and Thursdays and that means a lot of time to train. We will come back stronger for sure.

"There were a few moments we've over-performed and the boys have been great. But you need consistency, you need more. Some day people will say Basel was a very important moment for the future of Liverpool.

"The first half was okay. Sevilla were playing a lot of long ball to avoid our pressing game. Obviously the first goal had a big impact on our team. We lost faith in our style of play. We lost our formation. It wasn't compact anymore. I've had this problem one or two times."

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