Once again Middlesbrough found themselves three goals down on an intense European evening, but this time there was no coming back. When Enzo Maresca, once of West Brom, bounced in Sevilla's third last night there were just over six minutes left. Not even the Middlesbrough of spring 2006 could revive this situation.

Freddie Kanoute, another Sevilla player with an English background, drove in a fourth on 89 minutes and the unpleasant symmetry for manager Steve McClaren in his 250th and final game in charge of the Teessiders was that his last game ended the way of his first: a 4-0 defeat against Arsenal in August 2001.

There will be serious questions asked of the new England manager after this. This was not a good result for the Football Association. Last night Middlesbrough looked lost for periods of the game. The first half passed by the Teessiders like a ghost ship; the second half was more like the Uefa Cup-Boro England has come to know, but once Mark Viduka was denied a 76th-minute penalty and Maresca made it 2-0 two minutes later, it was goodnight Middlesbrough.

The Dutch hosts billed the contest as the first of two in a week between the best leagues in Europe. Next Wednesday in Paris it is Barcelona versus Arsenal. But these things are transient and the nationalist symbolism of a moment can be distorted. There were, for example, five Englishmen on the park last night and there are likely to be only two in Paris - seven of 44 starters.

But the presence in the dugout of McClaren added a domestic dimension: seven English managers have led their teams to victory in the Uefa Cup final in its various incarnations since foundation in 1958, but the last of them, Keith Burkinshaw, was in 1984.

From Teesside these past few months the message has been: the future's bright, the future's English. All 16 of the squad at Fulham last Sunday were English and last night, in the land of orange, they hoped to prove their maxim.

But even in those first 20 minutes there were signs Boro's young Englishmen were breathless and leggy. For Stewart Downing, Stuart Parnaby and James Morrison this was the biggest occasion of their short careers and in their uncertainty they showed it.

At 25, Chris Riggott acts as something of an elder statesman to the rest and two early interventions of Riggott's felt invaluable. But they were also both last-ditch and it was a reminder that the reason Boro have had to go in for such professional dramatics to get to Eindhoven was because the defence has been so shaky. This is a team that conceded 58 goals in the Premiership this season.

When Daniel Alves took possession down the Sevilla right in the 26th minute and swung in an inviting cross it was not entirely surprising to see Luis Fabiano rise unchallenged to send a header in off Mark Schwarzer's right-hand post. As Boro walked off it was once again all about their second-half reaction.

McClaren withdrew Morrison for Maccarone. Boro fans' warmth for the Italian is as much about his unpredictability as the opposite, but his arrival sparked some sort of energy boost. Within seven minutes of being on the pitch the Sevilla goalkeeper, Andres Palop, was making his first telling save. Riggott nodded down Fabio Rochemback's cross, but Mark Viduka struck the ball straight at Palop.

After every match McClaren speaks of "defining moments" and while only time would tell, this had the feel of one.

That sense was confirmed bleakly when first Viduka was not awarded the penalty and then Maresca slammed in Sevilla's second. There was no coming back and there was no comfort in Maresca's football education coming in part from England. ... Guardian Service