Boro brought back down to earth

Middlesbrough’s UEFA Cup luck ran out as rampant Sevilla powered their way to victory in Eindhoven.

Boro, who had engineered magnificent fightbacks in each of the previous two rounds, could not manage a repeat in the final as the Spaniards surged into the lead and then killed them off with a devastating display of finishing.

Midfielder Stewart Downing went into the game still celebrating his call-up to the England World Cup finals squad, but was left to reflect on what might have been.

“We had to go and attack them in the second half and the result didn’t reflect the game,” said the 21-year-old. “It definitely wasn’t a 4-0 game.

“We had chances, but we didn’t take them. You need that little bit of luck, and obviously it was with them and not us.”

Boro felt they should have had a penalty at 1-0 when defender Javi Navarro ploughed into Mark Viduka inside the area, but it was not to be.

“They got away with a lot of things, to be honest, but there’s no point in moaning about it,” said Downing.