Liverpool can beat Sevilla and prove they have improved from Europa League final defeat

Klopp's side collapsed after 'getting it in the neck', but Tuesday brings a chance to take revenge

Liverpool collapsed to defeat against Sevilla in the 2016 Europa League final (Getty)

According to the scoresheet, it was Coke's brace of second-half goals six minutes apart that made the difference in the 2016 Europa League final, ending Liverpool's hopes of sneaking into the Champions League and hitting Jürgen Klopp with his first major setback since taking charge at Anfield. Inside the heads of Klopp's players, though, the result was settled much sooner and much quicker.

To them, the Basel final was over as soon as Kevin Gameiro brought Sevilla level after just 17 seconds of the second half had elapsed. That was the point when, as Klopp's chief scout Peter Krawietz describes in Raphael Honigstein's new book Klopp: Bring The Noise : “They were like: hurrah. We were like: aargh. We couldn't come back from that and also had nothing left in the tank, physically.”

Krawietz speaks about the goal, which cancelled out Daniel Sturridge's special opener, with the same fatality that Hans-Joachim Watzke uses a few pages earlier to describe Borussia Dortmund's quarter-final defeat to Liverpool during the same campaign. After the final whistle sounded on that chaotic, barely credible comeback victory, Klopp looked on course to bring yet more of those patented 'great European nights' to Anfield.

​Four short weeks' later, Gameiro's goal put such nights on hold.

Liverpool meet Sevilla again on Tuesday night for the second time since that final, this time in Andalusia and this time in European football's first tier of competition. Just as victory in Basel would have guaranteed a return to the Champions League, three points on Tuesday will assure Klopp's side of a place where the club's stature, influence and financial clout all suggest it belongs – among the best 16 on the continent.

Only one of the Liverpool players to start the 2016 final, Kolo Touré, has departed and there is a temptation to ask how far the other 10 who remain have come. Most have developed; Philippe Coutinho was anonymous that night but is now one of Klopp's most consistent and reliable performers, a player ranked among world football's elite. Others, like Dejan Lovren, have more to prove.

The biggest question, however, regards the team as a unit and whether a year-and-a-half on, Liverpool can cope better with “getting it in the neck, mentally”. That was what did for them in Basel, according to Krawietz, and it has done for them on several occasions since too, twice already this season. Sevilla have every reason to exploit any lingering frailties again. Eduardo Berizzo's side will also seal progression with a win.

Klopp, meanwhile, will draw both confidence and concern from the meeting of these two sides at Anfield in September, when Liverpool controlled the contest but failed to make their dominance pay dividends. Roberto Firmino's miss from the penalty spot was costly, but not as costly as the two easily-preventable goals that were conceded to mean the points were shared.

“It felt quite average when we conceded a goal at home against Sevilla but now we are here and everybody knows that if we had not conceded this goal, our situation would be even better,” Klopp admitted at his pre-match press conference on Monday, aware that even though Liverpool sit top of Group E, errors were made in that 2-2 draw with Sevilla and a 1-1 away to Spartak Moscow. The back-to-back victories over whipping boys Maribor were needed but expected. Now is the time for his side to produce their first genuinely impressive result in this tournament. “This is the game,” the Liverpool manager felt compelled to add.

Leaving the Ramon Sanchez Pijaun victorious will be difficult. Sevilla have won three of their four encounters at home to English clubs, with Manchester City picking up the solitary win in November 2015. Liverpool can draw and still progress on the night, but only if Maribor surprise Spartak away in Moscow. Otherwise, qualification will rest on the final group game, when the Russian Premier League side visit Anfield in a fortnight's time.

Those 'great European nights' could, therefore, return sooner than thought. Klopp's task on Tuesday is to ensure they do not need to.