Eight months and fourteen games into a difficult Europa League campaign, Liverpool have earned their place in the final this Wednesday against holders Sevilla. This marks the first European final for the Reds since that ill-fated day in Athens back in 2007 when AC Milan got their revenge on Liverpool in the Champion's League.
As for the UEFA Europa League, the last time Liverpool won it was back in 2001 as part of Gerard Houllier's famous treble-winning season, when they beat another Spanish side, Deportivo Alaves, 5-4 after extra time. You can't say that Liverpool don't make cup games interesting.
The re-introduction of Jordan Henderson during Liverpool's final league game against West Brom on Sunday has the potential to shake up Klopp's starting line-up. Unfortunately, Danny Ings, who also got a 30 minute run-out on Sunday, is no longer registered for the Europa League, so that 30 minutes is definitely the last we'll see of him in a Liverpool shirt until pre-season. There were rumblings that Divock Origi might be ready for the final as well, but he wasn't in Klopp's team at The Hawthorns, and if he does feature on Wednesday, it will surely be as a substitute.
As for Sevilla, former Liverpool transfer target Yevhen Konoplyanka has been deemed fit to start the game after an injury scare last week. Los Rojiblancos finished off the La Liga season in 7th place and, rather shockingly, without any away wins for their efforts. Additionally, this Wednesday will not be their final match, as they also have the Copa Del Rey final against FC Barcelona to think about on Sunday.
Both teams will be battling for a place in the Champion's League on Wednesday, though while Liverpool are guaranteed to miss out on Europe entirely should they lose, Sevilla would still make the Europa League. Sevilla will also be attempting to win the Europa League for the third time in a row, which would make the record books. In fact, this will be the fifth Europa League final that Sevilla have played in within the last ten years. They've previously won all four of the others, which is another record: 2006, 2007, 2014, and 2015. This game will be no easy task for Liverpool, as the La Liga side have become Europa League specialists over the last decade.
This will be Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp's first experience in a Europa League final, though he previously steered Borussia Dortmund to the Champion's League final in 2013. Unai Emery managed Sevilla to their most recent Europa League victory last season against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
For Liverpool:
Mignolet
Clyne, Toure, Lovren, Moreno
Milner, Can
Lallana, Firmino, Coutinho
Sturridge
There shouldn't be many surprises in Klopp's line-up on Wednesday. Barring an appearance by Jordan Henderson, it's likely he'll go with the same team that dismantled Villarreal two weeks ago and drew against Chelsea last week. Poor Jon Flanagan still can't participate as he isn't in the Europa League squad, and so he will have to sit this one out with Ings. Joe Gomez and Danny Ward are both injured. Divock Origi is doubtful.
Kickoff is at 7:45PM BST/2:45PM EST on Wednesday, with radio coverage from LFCTV GO online for subscribers across the globe. Televised options are BT Sport Europe in the UK and Fox Sports 1 in the US. Elsewhere, it will also be showing on BeIN Sports Australia in Australia, TSN in Canada, Supersport 3 Africa in Kenya, and Astro Supersport in Malaysia. You can find other listings at LiveSoccerTV.
We'll be keeping you updated with all the buildup to the game, including team news as it's released, our live matchday thread and post-match recaps from The Liverpool Offside team. If you want to join in with the matchday discussion, sign up for an SB Nation account to have your say on the game as it happens.