Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson recalls how coach Jurgen Klopp spent the night with the players after the Reds lost the 2016 Europa League final to Unai Emery's Sevilla.
The night was a milestone, as the English club has since started its brilliance after this match, according to the British newspaper, The Guardian.
Today, Liverpool is close to appearing in the Champions League final for the third time in 5 seasons, but Villarreal, led by Emery in particular, stands in the way of this ambition, despite the loss yesterday, Wednesday, with two goals without a response in the first leg of the semi-final in Anfield, and the return match remains at the "El Madrigal" stadium. Next Tuesday.
Villarreal was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 2016 European League, at the hands of Liverpool, who beat them 3-1 on aggregate, but the Spanish coach of Sevilla Emery denied his German counterpart Jurgen Klopp from winning the European Cup at the end of his first season at Anfield.
After that sad match for the "Reds" fans, the Liverpool players left the stadium to celebrate the Andalusian club's third victory in a row in the competition under the leadership of Emery, and returned to their hotel residence in the Swiss capital, Basel.
And while Henderson - who did not play the match due to a knee injury in the quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund - wanted to be alone, Klopp had another opinion.
"I remember us players coming back to the hotel after the game, we were all very frustrated, we just wanted to go back to our rooms and not see anyone and bury our heads in bed, but Klopp asked us all to meet in the hotel bar downstairs, and we spent the night together."
"I felt as if he knew this was the beginning, that things were going to happen in the next few years, and he actually produced and proved that it was the beginning of something special."
"In the eyes of any player, it is very difficult to think that way when you lost the final at this moment, but I always felt that he was completely different from any coach I've seen before," noting that that night always remained in his mind.
For his part, Klopp, who won all the European semi-finals he played as coach of Liverpool, says that he was not sure of the success that awaited him. Stronger, and we did it."
"It was a difficult night (...) Seville's 64th game in an incredibly difficult season, a lot of injuries, players came back a few days before the final. Would anything have been different since then if we had won that night? I don't think so. I would have loved if we had lifted the trophy that night, but you have to try and learn from these things."
Once at the club, Henderson says, Klopp "gave a boost to the whole team, had a good way of seeing the bigger picture and using the European final loss to Sevilla at the time, to our advantage going forward; it's been a very eventful year since then".