In the 21st minute of the Champions League final Thiago found Sadio Mané in a pocket of space outside Real Madrid’s box. The Liverpool forward turned inside the first challenge, outside a second, and hit a razor-sharp shot towards the bottom-left corner.
It was one of those shots he puts his whole body into, like the penalty with which he won the Africa Cup of Nations for Senegal, and it looked a certain goal all the way – until Thibaut Courtois got a glove to it and turned it onto the post. A potential hero narrative presented itself: look how quick and explosive Mané was as he beat those challenges. Real Madrid can’t deal with him. He’s in the form of his life and nothing can stop him. This is his year. Mané, Ballon D’Or.
But in the head of Courtois a different hero narrative was forming. You know the way you sometimes get the uncanny feeling that a goalkeeper is not going to be beaten? It turns out goalkeepers get that too. “After that I started to think it was a good day for me,” he said afterwards. “I just felt it was my day, and I saved everything.”
Liverpool had 24 shots, nine on target, and 2.14 expected goals – but only once after the Mané chance did Courtois seriously looked like conceding. That was when Mo Salah ran on to a long ball and controlled it with a first touch that looked like it might be magical enough to overcome the magic with which Courtois was guarding his goal.
But the Belgian correctly anticipated that Salah would shoot across him, and again his right glove blocked the way to goal. “It’s crazy, I don’t believe it,” said Courtois, who said this was the best performance of a career that has spanned more than 600 senior matches. Madrid would never have made it this far without his penalty save from Lionel Messi in the round of 16. As Karim Benzema stepped up this season to replace the goalscoring of Cristiano Ronaldo, Courtois has inherited Sergio Ramos’ role as the man who breaks the hearts of the opposition.
Before the game Real Madrid’s coach Carlo Ancelotti had repeated the familiar line: “Finals aren’t for playing, they’re for winning.” He has played enough seasons and enough finals to know that people don’t remember the process and the details. They remember the key moments and they remember how winning and losing made them feel. At the final whistle, as Courtois ran the length of the pitch to celebrate alone to the corner in front of Madrid’s fans, he knew that he had “put my little piece of history in Real Madrid”.
At the other end of the emotional scale was Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had done an interview with the Guardian’s Donald McRae during the build-up to the game that was fatefully headlined “I always feel I can see things others can’t see.”
Those words lent a dramatic irony to the moment in the 58th minute when everyone in the stadium could see Vinicius sneaking up on Alexander-Arnold’s blind side except Alexander-Arnold himself. The Liverpool right-back must have been at least vaguely aware of Vinicius’ presence, but did not move to close him down. Maybe he thought the cross about to come in from Federico Valverde would be cut out or could not make it all the way to the back post, but this turned out to be a complacent assumption.
And so it was that Liverpool lost the final because Vinicius escaped unmarked into the space behind Alexander-Arnold, the potential weak spot in Liverpool’s defence that had been flagged in advance by even the simplest of pundits. It was Alexander-Arnold’s only defensive error of a game in which he also made some excellent tackles and interceptions, besides his usual contribution shaping the attack. But it’s like the old joke, “you shag one sheep...” The reality is that Vinicius stealing in behind him is the only image from this performance that will be remembered.
(It would be a surprise if this bitter experience did not prompt him to consider whether he would not be better off moving back to midfield, where he wouldn’t have to balance being the team’s main play-maker with walking a defensive tightrope. He told the Guardian that “what I’m best at” was to “create, find passes and hurt the opposition”. It’s not a list of attributes that screams “right-back”. Considering how ordinary Liverpool’s midfield was in this game, and the age profile of their midfield starters, maybe they can no longer afford not to use Alexander-Arnold’s visionary skills in there.)
After the goal, Aledander-Arnold played with the desperation of a man who knew he was going to have to listen to his pre-match quotes being quoted back at him for many years. But by then Liverpool were already sinking in the quicksand of Real Madrid’s expert game-management.
Every time the ball went dead they killed another 45 seconds. Every young player should study how Toni Kroos and Luka Modric took free-kicks in midfield as Madrid ran down the clock. Approach the ball slowly. Pick it up, throw it down with a bit of backspin. Bend down, adjust your socks. Massage your ankles. Stretch. Step back. Size it up like a golf shot. Then, just as you look like you are about to take it, walk away from the ball leaving it for a guy standing behind you. In a way it was beautiful to watch such craftsmanship and the Real Madrid fans rejoiced in every second of it.
Afterwards Klopp was determined to be positive. “These boys played a fantastic season. I feel the pride already, but I saw as well I was the only one in the dressing room at that moment. The boys need a bit longer. I understand that.”
Many Liverpool players have talked about how Klopp swiftly picked the team up after defeats in European finals in 2016 and 2018. This time will be harder. Alexander-Arnold told the Guardian that when Liverpool lost the 2018 final, he thought: “I’m 19 and with the players and the manager we have we’ll be back... I knew we would come back stronger.” Alexander-Arnold is still young but many of his team-mates are not: Henderson is 31, van Dijk and Thiago 30, Matip, Firmino and Salah 29, and Mané is leaving.
So this defeat feels different, and worse. In 2018 they were a young side punching above their weight. Now they are an experienced team at the top of their game, who allowed themselves to be beaten by an inferior side, losing out on a title that should have been theirs, and missing a chance that might never come again.
Next season they will face familiar rivals who have already massively reinforced, plus new challenges from Manchester United, Arsenal and maybe Newcastle. Klopp’s powers of moral regeneration are rightly celebrated, but convincing these players that the best is yet to come might be his biggest test yet.
