Last month, the safe bet was that Liverpool midfielder Emre Can’s season was over after he damaged ankle ligaments in the dramatic 4-3 win over Borussia Dortmund at Anfield. After spending eight hours a day, every day at Melwood since then, the German international returned for the emphatic 3-0 victory over Villarreal that saw the Reds book a spot in the Europa League final — a match he’s nailed on to start.
“I think everybody is training hard for a game like this,” he told the club’s official website ahead of the meeting with Sevilla in Basel. “I’ve never won a final with Liverpool up to now – and I want to win that final and my first trophy with Liverpool. I will give my best, the team will give its best and then we want to win the game and hopefully we will do it,” he continued, full of determination. “Maybe it’s the most important game [of my career] against Sevilla because I’ve played just one final against Manchester City, so it’s the biggest game for me,” mused the former Bayer Leverkusen man. “Sevilla know how to play in the Europa League. They’ve won the last two Europa League titles, and so it will be a very tough game, but if we show what we are able to do as a team then we can win the final.”
Although the Reds league form has been somewhat disappointing as a whole, the cup competitions have provided some much needed relief from the drudgery of the Premier League with the Anfield outfit already featuring in one showpiece event this season when they lost out on penalties to Manchester City in the League Cup — an experience that Can is keen to learn from, but ultimately aiming to avoid repeating.
“It was very, very disappointing to lose that final. But I think we can use it as a team on Wednesday,” said the German international. “It doesn’t feel good when you lose the final – and so obviously that’s why we want to win this final. We’ve played very well in the last few months. We have a very, very strong squad and next year we will go again and our target is to win [more] titles,” explained the 22-year old, already looking ahead to a bright future on Merseyside. “I think it’s very important and we want to play next year in the Champions League, but the first thing is that we want to win the final.”
