Dejan Lovren confident of reaching Europa League final

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has insisted that his side believe in their ability to reach the Europa League final this season.

The Reds trail Villarreal 1-0 at the halfway stage of the semi-final after Adrian Lopez scored an injury-time winner in the first leg at El Madrigal last week.

However, the Reds have the second leg at Anfield on Thursday night, and Lovren is confident that they will be able to overturn the deficit.

"We have been disappointed [in the past] when we've conceded a goal but in the end, if you want to win you need to score," he told reporters.

"We just need to be clever and patient. We need to play our game and we will have our chances. But in the end when you attack, you need to defend.

"I believe in our team. We have shown so many times this season we can play when we are 1-0 or 2-0 down. We need to believe in ourselves and if we do that, I think we can get to the final."

Lovren scored the winning goal when Liverpool came from 3-1 down to beat Borussia Dortmund 4-3 in their most recent European match at Anfield.