KLOPP GETS A FOLD MEDAL

Reds fold like a cheap suit as they blow three-goal lead

JURGEN KLoPP admits his rattled Reds were masters of their own downfall as they “stopped playing football” to blow a three-goal lead in a second-half meltdown.

They were set to seal a place in the knockout stage after storming clear in the first half-hour with Roberto Firmino scoring two and creating one for Sadio Mane.

Yet Liverpool’s habit of kamikaze defending haunted them again, with Wissam Ben Yedder grabbing a double before Guido Pizarro completed Sevilla’s fightback in the last minute.

Klopp’s side must now take a point from their final game against Spartak Moscow to go through and only victory will ensure they top the group.

The Kop boss said: “We stopped playing football in the second half. We have one real weapon – playing football – and we didn’t do that in the second half before we conceded the second goal.

“It was absolutely okay we were confident after that first half. It’s obvious what we did – the real problem is we stopped playing football.

“Our main mistake was that for 15 minutes we didn’t play football, we were passive, we were too deep. They fought back and well done to them.

“It feels like we lost. There is a game to go and it’s still in our hands but at the moment it feels really bad.”

All the old defensive frailties – which had seemed to have disappeared in a run of four straight wins while conceding just one goal – returned with a vengeance as Liverpool looked shellshocked in the second half.

Klopp had joked last week after a minor health scare that he’d been told by doctors only results would kill him.

And here with this performance he was subjected to the sort of stress that makes it no laughing matter. It had all started so majestically as they destroyed Sevilla in the first half.

The opener arrived in just two minutes when Philippe Coutinho swung over a corner and Giorginio Wijnaldum flicked a header across to the far post where Firmino was lurking to fire into the net.

Firmino almost scored again when Jordan Henderson sent him scuttling through, his shot producing a fine save, but from the resulting corner he flicked on this time and Mane stooped at the far post to head home.

It was 3-0 on the half-hour as Mane drove on to a long ball from Alberto Moreno to leave stragglers in his fumes as he ran unchecked into the box and even though his shot was saved, Firmino tapped in.

Before that though Sevilla had offered hints of what was to come, and why they are so formidable at home, when Loris Karius had produced a fine save to deny Nolito and then Ben Yedder shot wide from a fine position.

The little striker may have thought that miss – at 1-0 – was a costly one but he more than made up for it with a startling second-half display.

The goal that offered the home side a lifeline was a soft one, Moreno sleeping at the near post as Ever Banega’s free-kick was nodded past Karius by Ben Yedder.

By the hour the game was truly back on though Sevilla required some luck as Ben Yedder went down ridiculously easily under Moreno’s challenge.

The little forward kept his composure to convert from the spot, even after he was forced to retake the penalty when the referee judged his team-mates had encroached.

That set up a nerve-jangling finale and the Reds were made to pay when they gave away a corner with seconds left, failed to clear with comic ineptitude and Pizarro rammed home. DUNFERMLINE .1 MORTON .......... 1