I cried when I left Sevilla ... now I’m out to break their hearts
Liverpool’s Alberto Moreno is fired up for Europa League glory
IT WAS one of the first phrases Liverpool’s full back mastered, and the ‘ Unbelievable, Jeff ’ catchphrase has taken on even more significance for Alberto Moreno in recent weeks.
It was his response to his Liverpool team-mates back in the dressing room at the end of their epic Europa League quarterfinal comeback win over Borussia Dortmund.
He then repeated it — in hilarious fashion because of his Spanish accent — in front of the cameras before the semi-final win over Villarreal. And it will sum up the season if he beats his old Sevilla side on Wednesday to win the Europa League.
‘When I arrived I didn’t understand anything but I kept hearing Lucas Leiva in training saying “Unbelievable, Jeff”,’ says Moreno.
‘He kept saying it and in the end it stuck in my head. Once I’d started saying it, I thought I’d better find out where it came from. I looked it up on YouTube and there was Chris Kamara, “Unbelievable, Jeff”.’
Clips of Sky’s Soccer Saturday and watching Match of the Day in the team hotel have helped the 23- year- old master his new language. He’s also watched recordings of Liverpool’s famous European final in Istanbul in 2005.
‘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.’
Liverpool’s Istanbul Mk II against Dortmund left even Jurgen Klopp speechless. ‘He usually says something after a match, but that night he didn’t say anything. He just let us celebrate,’ says Moreno.
Moreno believes Dortmund are the best side he has faced this year Young gun: Alberto Moreno in Sevilla’s academy a decade ago and admits: ‘I can never sleep after a game but that night it was worse. It was a night I will never forget. Thanks to Anfield we got out of a very difficult situation.’
Moreno looks very much like a Klopp player — all energy and confidence, albeit still occasionally with the naivety of a winger who didn’t convert to full back until he was 21.
‘He is a coach who is always happy and joking but when the moment of truth comes he is the most serious man in the world,’ he says of Klopp. ‘He is very close to the players, which is great for us.’
As a full back that proximity can be literal at times and Klopp has been caught rollicking Moreno on more than one occasion. ‘Once I’m o on the pitch it’s hard for me to hear anything, I’m concentrating on the game,’ he says. ‘But yes, there are times when I notice it.’
Unai Emery — who converted Moreno from winger to full back and gave him his debut at Sevilla — will be in the other technical area on Wednesday, crouching down, springing up and pacing back and forth like an expectant father. The two hyperactive managers will be a sight to see, a few metres from each other at Basle’s St Jakob Park.
‘ 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.’
It’s not just the coaches who are cut from the same cloth. Moreno says if he had to pick a team that were Liverpool’s equivalent in Spain it might be Sevilla. They have their own rousing pre-match anthem, there is a passion that is hard to match elsewhere in Spain, and they support in numbers too.
‘You could have played this game i in the Santiago Bernabeu and it would have sold out,’ he says of the decision to play the final in a 38,000-capacity venue.
The fact that Sevilla is such an emotional club helps explain why Moreno’s adios was a teary one. ‘ I was in Cardiff for the 2014 European Super Cup final against Real Madrid,’ he recalls. ‘On the morning of the game Emery came over and told me I was not going to play. He said the club had negotiated with Liverpool and I couldn’t play because of the risk of injury.
‘I was happy to be going to a great club, but I wanted to play that final. It was tough. I had to watch the game from the stands and I went to Melwood the next day.’
The following day Moreno was back in Seville and the emotion got the better of him as he broke down in a farewell press conference.
‘I arrived in 2004 when I was 11. 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.’ He talks like a man who is not planning to leave any time soon. ‘I turned up not even knowing phrases like “man on”,’ he says.
‘I was still trying to tell teammates in Spanish — “Cuidado!” (Look out) — but now it comes naturally. I just need to become fluent. But I have got three years left on my contract, I can learn a lot more in three years.’
Now Moreno is preparing for his second Europa League final in three years having played in 2014 when Sevilla beat Benfica on penalities.
Jose Antonio Reyes played the game too and is one of those he stays in touch with. He asked Reyes about his move to England, and the former Arsenal winger, despite never settling in London, told him to make the most of it. ‘He said I would really enjoy it, the atmosphere of the stadiums, the way the supporters are,’ he says.
He is doing exactly that. And under Klopp, who knows what can be achieved next season?
‘Anything can happen. We have seen it this year with Leicester winning the league. Tottenham were actually the toughest rival I faced but that takes nothing away from Leicester. You cannot relax against anyone. It’s one of the things that I love about being here, it’s so competitive.’
And he agrees Liverpool have an ultra- competitive manager to meet the challenge. ‘He always wants to win and all the players are 100 per cent involved in trying to win every game as well. He’s been in the job for 50 matches and we’re in two finals. Any coach would take that!’
Now for the challenge of winning the second of those finals, against the team where he made his name.
Anything can happen next season. Look at Leicester