One of Jurgen Klopp’s favourite phrases rather sums up his managerial ethos. “Everything is possible,” the German often says. He has illustrated as much.
English clubs tend to approach the Europa League with an air of foreboding, believing it is impossible to win the competition and that it will have a destructive impact on their Premier League prospects.
Klopp’s predecessor Brendan Rodgers belonged to that school of thought. It was deemed less a necessary evil than an unnecessary one.
Liverpool's run commenced in Bordeaux. Rodgers began with midfielder Jordan Rossiter, who was not one of the 26 players granted a Premier League start this season. They drew. They met Sion next. Rossiter started again. They drew again.
Exit Rodgers, enter Klopp, bringing industrial quantities of optimism and a sense of greater possibilities. They included winning a derided competition. He parachuted in his premier players. Exit Rossiter.
“I told the boys that 148 [actually 195] teams started this tournament and only 10 or 15 can win it,” the German said. “Liverpool is one of these teams. Let’s try it.”
Now only two can win it and Liverpool are one of them. They have negotiated 14 games. They have one more to go, against Sevilla in Basel on Wednesday night.
Read more: Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool are 'ready for the big moments' against Sevilla in Europa final
Also see: From Real Madrid to Atletico to Sevilla – Five reasons why La Liga clubs dominate Europe
Klopp has made the improbable possible. Liverpool have approached the Europa League with renewed zeal.
“It was a little bit more difficult to enjoy Liverpool football in the last few years but everybody was waiting for the moment when there was something to enjoy again,” the German said. “This team gave these moments back.”
An emotional manager lives for the moment, but moments create memories. He gave Anfield its first magnificent European nights in seven years. Not just one or even two, either, but three.
The 2-0 win against Manchester United and the 3-0 victory over Villarreal sandwiched the 4-3 triumph over Borussia Dortmund. Liverpool needed three unanswered goals in the last 25 minutes. They got them. Everything is possible.
“We had maybe the best atmospheres in the world at the moment,” Klopp said. “Nowhere else in the world happened the things that happened in our game against Dortmund.”
It was a comeback to rival Liverpool’s most famous, in the 2005 Uefa Champions League final. Klopp, with his fondness for displays of spirit and indefatigability, has used Istanbul as a motivational tool in team-talks, along with Sylvester Stallone’s fictional boxer Rocky Balboa.
Perhaps real life contains too few inspirational tales but Liverpool’s history contains several.
Consider their 2001 campaign, the third and last time they won this competition. Then, as now, they plotted a difficult path to the final, beating Roma and Barcelona en route. Then Gerard Houllier’s team, like Klopp’s now, faced further Spanish opponents.
Liverpool’s clean sheet specialists had not conceded in their previous five European games. They let in four goals to Alaves and still won, courtesy of the 36-year-old Gary McAllister’s extra-time free kick.
McAllister had joined on a free transfer from Coventry the previous summer. He was the outstanding player in a European final.
Everything is possible. Now, perhaps, it is for some of Liverpool’s modern-day improbables.
The 35-year-old Kolo Toure may be playing his last game for the club. Emre Can was a makeshift defender for Rodgers. Now he is a midfield mainstay for Klopp. Simon Mignolet is a distinctly fallible goalkeeper but his penalty-saving prowess means he has the potential to join Bruce Grobbelaar and Jerzy Dudek among Liverpool’s spot-kick heroes in European finals.
Despite their continental pedigree, they may start as underdogs. Sevilla are aiming for the “three-peat”, to become the first club to win this competition in three successive seasons.
“I don’t think it is relevant,” said Klopp, a voice of positivity dismissing a negative omen.
His focus will be on his own.
“There is no chance to win a final with 60 percent of your quality,” he said.
Perform at 100 percent, as Liverpool did against United, Dortmund and Villarreal, however, then they could win a competition their previous manager cared little for. Everything is possible.
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