Liverpool endured a fantastic season but when it came down to the big Champions League final against Real Madrid, we faltered badly. It is unfair to single out Loris Karius’ mistakes between the sticks since things did not work in our favour from the very beginning.
Right from Mohamed Salah’s unfortunate injury to Karius’ frustrating display, Liverpool failed to make an impact when it really mattered. What makes it worse is the fact that we actually were the better team for a good majority of the game.
Despite Karius’ initial blunder and Karim Benzema’s goal, we made a comeback of sorts as Sadio Mane scored a goal.
But Zinedine Zidane introduced Gareth Bale and after the Welshman’s brace, there was nothing we could do to salvage the situation.
It was indeed a tragic end to our scintillating season and the dismay was writ clearly on the faces of the traveling Liverpool supporters at Kiev.
However, over the years, Liverpool have been burnt to the ground several times and yet, we have always risen from the ashes. This situation will pass but there are numerous issues that need to be dealt with right now.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Jurgen Klopp provided an insight regarding the two players on everyone’s minds – Karius and Salah.
As quoted by Express, Klopp said:
“The situation with Ramos and Mo, it looks really bad and of course it was shock to the team.
“It is unbelievable. There is something with the shoulder, obviously. You could imagine he would have played on if anything was possible.
“I didn’t see him afterwards, he has gone for an X-Ray but it doesn’t look good.”
When asked about Karius, Klopp replied:
“What can I say? Loris knows it, everybody knows it, it’s a shame that it’s in a game like this and after a season like this.
“I really feel for him. The first one… the second one I think is because of the first one, in a game like this it’s really difficult to get rid of.
“We were in the game, we did what we could, the boys tried everything but there was not the best script for us tonight.”
Well, it was indeed a shock defeat but it is important for Liverpool fans to stay united and stand together to weather this storm. Let’s hope we are able to bounce back stronger next season.