"It is tough", "I am devasted" - Liverpool duo Andy Robertson and Jordan Henderson react to Champions League final defeat

A dejected Andy Robertson cut a desperate figure in the bowels of the Stade France after Liverpool's defeat on Saturday night.

The Scotland captain had just been on the receiving end of a Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid for the second time in his career when he walked through the mixed zone at the Saint-Denis stadium at around midnight.

One of his career lowlights, no doubt, Robertson was trying to make sense of an evening that saw his team lose to los Blancos, but also a night where he was worried for his family and friends' safety after the chaos that unravelled outside the ground before kick-off.

Thousands of Liverpool supporters were subjected to horrendous treatment from French riot police and stewards as they queued up for hours before the game was pencilled in to get underway.

Kick-off was delayed by 36 minutes as supporters that included children outside were indiscriminately hit with tear gas on a dark, dark night for UEFA. The European governing body must now face up to big questions over the failings of the authorities at the venue on Saturday evening.

Supporters on the ground likened the events to the tragic Hillsborough disaster of 1989 and that, if you have any idea of the culture of Liverpool's fanbase, is something that is not said lightly.

The football itself is a mere secondary thought right now and there can be little reflection on the game itself without a thorough discussion of just what went wrong and why, as always seems to be the case, football fans were treated like nothing more than animals in replica shirts.

Robertson and Henderson took out time to express their feelings despite Liverpool's heartrbreak in Paris

Robertson still had enough class about him to stop and chat after the game, but told journalists there, including this correspondent, that now was not the time for any meaningful reflection on a Liverpool season that went all the way.

Sixty-three games in total, two cups won, a Premier League title they just narrowly missed out on before Saturday's 1-0 defeat in the biggest game in club football. However you view the Reds' season, Robertson was refusing to offer his considered verdict with emotions still raw at the time.

He said:

"The Liverpool side of it we will think about after international duties, you can’t reflect on it tonight, you are not in the right frame of mind and you have to let all the emotion and your feelings come out and that is fine.

"It is tough tonight but that is part and parcel of football, unfortunately, it is important we bounce back but the bounce back will happen tomorrow and not the next day, we will be ready and pick ourselves up and go again in pre-season."

Jordan Henderson was a similarly upset figure, but, like Robertson, he had the character to talk to the reporters he regularly speaks to around Anfield and the club's training AXA Centre.

“We’re obviously all disappointed," he said. "I am devastated. It's hard to assess it now so close to the game. We're just really disappointed, there's not much more I can say. The lads gave it their all, we're disappointed with the way the game went, just couldn't get that little bit of luck we needed. Just devastated.

"I can't be more proud of the lads. We've given everything all season, every game, and tonight was no different. We gave everything, we just didn't get that luck in front of goal. Mo's chance at the end was a fantastic save. It just wasn't to be, unfortunately."

The time for proper analysis on this Liverpool season can wait. The squad themselves are off to heal some wounds, pain that was significantly eased, however, by the open-top bus parade around the city itself on Sunday afternoon. It was the least their efforts deserved.