Liverpool Duo Condemned to Watching Euro 2016 from Afar

Patrice Evra rarely comes across as the most sentimental of men, but as France prepared to enter the final countdown of preparation for Euro 2016 this week, their squad’s great survivor allowed himself a trip down memory lane to recall one of Les Bleus’ landmark recent moments.

In fact, it was the moment of recent times for a national team that has often entertained a difficult relationship with their public.

It was back in November 2013 when, two down from the first leg of their FIFA World Cup qualifying play-off with Ukraine, France swept past Mykhaylo Fomenko’s side in an electrifying return at the Stade de France.

Of course, with Evra being Evra, the tale’s imagery was swathed in thorns, rather than scattered with rose petals. “After the first leg in Ukraine,” he said with a mischievous grin, per RMC (in French), “a lot of people were preparing the guillotine and even wanted to take back our passports.”  

The Juventus man had good reason to bring it up. It’s the sort of game whose mere memory galvanises a squad and the public; and as Evra said—albeit in a rather arch fashion—it united the former and the latter more closely on home soil than they had been since the 1998 World Cup. It was very special and bears repeating.

When one thinks of that heady night, though, it’s impossible not to spare a thought for Mamadou Sakho and how he will be missed this summer. The defender had been the unlikely hero on that night against Ukraine, slamming home the opener after Andriy Pyatov’s spill and raising the temperature with his passion and drive.

The decisive third goal, turned into his own net by Oleg Gusev with Sakho waiting to pounce, was incorrectly credited to the Liverpool defender by numerous channels, and you could understand why.

It was like Sakho was forcing Franck Ribery’s cross into the net through sheer strength of will, and he celebrated as if it had been his goal, briefly considering removing his shirt before checking himself.

In the post-match celebrations, it is Sakho proudly waving the Tricolore over the players’ heads.

So it is deeply sad that Sakho won’t get to play in this home tournament. After his initial exclusion for club and country, having failed a drug test in the fourth week of April, his initial 30-day UEFA ban was not extended, per Sky Sports, with doubts over whether the substance for which the defender tested should be on the prohibited list, as his legal team had argued throughout the case.

Technically, Sakho is free to play, but having already missed the UEFA Europa League final, his chance to play in Euro 2016 had gone.

Having found out the news about Sakho hours after replacing the injured Jeremy Mathieu with Lyon’s Samuel Umtiti, Didier Deschamps shut down any idea of a reprieve for Sakho.

The France coach argued it would “inhumane” on the existing picks, per ESPN FC, and it is hard to disagree with him, even if it is a deeply regrettable—if not yet concluded—situation.

It also means that both of Liverpool’s first-choice centre-backs, who have thrived under Jurgen Klopp and might have been expected to do likewise in the Euros this summer, will not be there.

Dejan Lovren’s case is a quite different one, with the former Southampton defender left out of the Croatia squad after an unresolved dispute with coach Ante Cacic.

The 26-year-old reacted badly to being just a substitute for the March friendly with Hungary and said he would “either travel to France as a starting player, or I am not going,” per the Croatian newspaper Sportske novosti (h/t Mirror).

Calling the experienced coach’s bluff has not worked, and Croatia’s best central defender will spend the summer at home.

“He can return one day if he realises that he has to be a team player," Cacic said when announcing his squad last month, per Alex Richards' Mirror report. "When it dawns on him that he can't look down on his team-mates, the staff and the coach, he will perhaps find a way to get back in."

It’s a real shame for a player who has started to resemble his best again since Klopp’s arrival at Anfield.

Since arriving in the big leagues, when he signed for Lyon from Dinamo Zagreb in the January 2010 transfer window, Lovren’s career has been the dictionary definition of mercurial. He was 20 when he pitched up at the Stade de Gerland, and he took time to settle.

Yet, he formed a handy partnership with the more senior Milan Bisevac at the heart of Lyon’s defence until the wheels fell off in his last six months there—and how they fell off.

Out of form and out of favour, regular observers felt Lyon were lucky to bank the reported £8.5 million fee they did for him in 2013.

Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images

Twelve months on, of course, and Southampton had more than doubled their money, moving him on to Anfield for £20 million. That doesn’t quite tell the whole story, though.

Lovren had been sublime for his first six months, as Saints briefly threatened to get into the mix for a UEFA Champions League place. Hindered by an ankle injury, he faded in the new year.

Having found consistency in recent months after some trying times at Liverpool, his season has now come to a juddering halt.

Both France and Croatia will be fine without the pair, of course. It wasn’t only Sakho who was key in that fateful match against Ukraine. Mathieu Valbuena and Karim Benzema were both vital figures in the comeback, too, and neither of the pair will be involved this summer, due to poor form and the authorities’ view of the latter’s current legal problems, respectively.

One can’t dine out on one game forever, no matter how pivotal a night that was, and the rising Umtiti is a more-than-able deputy if required.

The real leader of Cacic’s side is the evergreen Darijo Srna, and though Lovren would have been an undoubted asset to an ageing defence, Croatia can justifiably hope that the quality they have further forward, especially in the form of Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric, can reduce that from danger to mere inconvenience.

Whatever the reasons that brought them here, though, we should spare a thought for Sakho and Lovren, who have both missed an opportunity.

Klopp will hope they channel their frustrations into making 2016-17 a highly successful season for Liverpool, because they can both play a major part in that.