Moreno seeking extra inspiration from Liverpool heroes

Liverpool left-back Alberto Moreno has been using the club’s incredible 2005 Champions League triumph in Istanbul as motivation for his club’s upcoming Europa League final against his old side Sevilla.

The Spanish winger-turned-full-back said he was watching footage of the game, in which Liverpool recovered from a 3-0 half-time deficit to lift the Champions League trophy after penalties, in the build up to his first European final with the club.

“I’ve seen a video of the game but I also remember watching the match on the night. I was very young but old enough to remember not being able to believe what I was watching. They did something very special,” Moreno told the Daily Mail.

Not that the Spain international is short on European final experience, despite being just 25.

Moreno won the Europa League with Sevilla in 2014 before moving to Liverpool and if he is to get his hands on it again this month, he will have to beat his former club and his old manager, Unai Emery.

Emery is the man who converted Moreno into a full-back and the Liverpool star said there were similarities between the Sevilla coach and his new manager Jurgen Klopp.

“They have certain things in common,” he says.

“They are both very passionate about the game. And they both create a sort of force within the group, an intensity that you then see reflected on the pitch in the way that we don’t stop running and we don’t stop working.

“I’m playing in a very similar way to the way I played for Emery. Both managers like attacking full-backs. But I also know that the first thing I need to do is defend.”

And while Moreno is not expecting tears to flow, he was quick to recall how tough it was for him to leave the club he joined as an 11-year-old when he left for Liverpool in 2014.

“I arrived in 2004 when I was 11,” he said.

“You’re a kid when you come and then 10 years later you have to say goodbye to your city, your friends, and separate yourself from your family. But I’m very happy at Liverpool now.”