Milner: So disappointing we couldn't come back once more
With Liverpool having performed many heroic comebacks in this season's Europa League, James Milner believes it was just too big of an ask for the Reds to turn the tables around once again in the final on Wednesday night.
Jürgen Klopp's side lost 3-1 against holders Sevilla at St. Jakob-Park, despite taking a first-half lead courtesy of a brilliant strike from Daniel Sturridge.
However, Kevin Gameiro equalised just seconds after the interval before a double from Coke secured the crown for the Spanish side.
Despite the dramatic turnarounds that were witnessed against Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal en route to the final, the Reds, unfortunately, could not muster up another spirited fightback this time.
"We've shown that character time and time again in this competition, but tonight we couldn't do that," Milner told BT Sport in the immediate aftermath.
"That's disappointing. When you leave yourselves too much to do one too many times, it's pretty difficult to do it time and time again.
"It will take a long time to get over this but we have to regroup, take what belief we can and learn from what we can.
"We've been to two finals this year and not managed to get over the line, so we need to learn from that and make sure that next time we get there we finish the job.
"Everything we said at half-time were the right things, everyone was switched on but we didn't show that.
"We gave a sloppy goal away in the first couple of seconds in the second half and we never really got back into the game from there."
According to Milner, Liverpool will leave Basel with the regret of knowing that their performance on the grand occasion was not to the level they know they can reach.
The vice-captain added: "We've shown throughout this competition that we're good enough to win it, but we haven't tonight on the night that it mattered most and that's the most disappointing thing.
"It took us a while to get into the game. I thought once we got into the game we played pretty well - [we] got the goal obviously and I don't think they caused us too many problems, just set-plays. Second half, we know we never started at all.
"It's devastating losing the game, but I think the most disappointing thing is that we didn't show [anywhere] near what we're about. [We] didn't play anywhere near our abilities and that's probably the biggest thing for me."