Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool: 3 Things That Went Wrong For Liverpool In The Champions League Final

Real Madrid managed to make it three in a row, in Europe's most elite competition, when no team had managed to retain their title even once in its history. Zinedine Zidane has continued on his fairy-tale journey with three Champions League titles in his first three seasons as head coach of Los Blancos.

Jurgen Klopp's men fought well and fought hard, but a certain Egyptian having to walk off the pitch in tears seemed to knock out the wind in their sails. It felt as if they had gone down to ten men instead of a substitution owing to the injury as Benzema put his side ahead.

Mane managed to level things up from a well-worked corner before Gareth Bale stole the show and the trophy for the most successful side in the history of the competition.

Here are three things that went wrong for Liverpool on what was supposed to be the night when they reach their Promised Land:

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#3 No Mo Salah

Ronaldo empathised with his Ballon d'Or competitor following his injury

So much was expected from the game, for so long. The start to the final in Kiev lived up to the billing with both teams quick off the blocks. Ronaldo managed to do a couple of flick-of-the-studs stepovers as he rampaged down the left side to find some room in-behind the defence before he looked to slow down the play before turning the tempo all the way up.

Liverpool managed to get past the first couple of minutes and it seems that helped calm the nerves a little on such a frantic night of high-octane football. The Reds soon hit the straps and grew into the game as the seconds ticked by.

By the end of the first fifteen minutes, the team from Merseyside had rattled the holders through some of that heavy-metal, gegen-pressing, vintage-Kloop football.

The much-talked about, the much-written-about front three started to affect proceedings with Sadio Mane looking the most-likely to further his team's historic journey. Even Mohamed Salah found himself in the box with the ball there to be hit, so did Roberto Firmino. Both saw their shots blocked.

Trent Alexander-Arnold too saw his effort saved terrifically by Keylor Navas. The Madrid keeper hung onto it too, when it seemed almost impossible to with the amount of power the Englishman managed to get behind it.

However, none of the half-chances were put away by the underdogs and that proved to be the difference between the sides. Apart from a host of other things, chief among which was the heart-breaking departure of the Egyptian.

Suddenly, Liverpool were without their super-hero, out with a shoulder injury around the half-hour mark, after he was hauled to the ground by Sergio "who else" Ramos. We can only hope and pray this doesn't affect his possibilities of making it to Russia.

Come on, Mo! Get better soon!

#2 Bale decided to have his best game in a Real Madrid shirt

WHAT IN THE!

Wow. How long has it been? 2012, if I'm not mistaken. The most promising prospect to come out of the Premier League since Cristiano Ronaldo decried to move to the most decorated club in the world. His promise was reflected by the high price tag he came with. Higher than the Portuguese we spoke about when he similarly left England for Spain.

There is little debate when it comes to the effect the two have had on the legendary Spanish side. The 5-time Ballon d'Or winner, with arguably a sixth on the way, has never relinquished control on his throne of not just the greatest player on his side, but maybe of his generation. Maybe of all time. The record goal-scoring machine has been overshadowing the Welshman ever since he arrived at the Bernabeu.

So when Gareth Bale was left out fo the starting line-up in favour of Isco, not many were even surprised at the selection. Such has been the inconsistency of the former Tottenham man for Zidane's side.

He did come on though - queue Zidane's greatest hits, with the scoreboard reading 1-1, and went on to score one of the greatest goals of all-time. We might not just be talking about theChampions League. He did followed it up with another, thanks too some unwarranted help, but we'll remember exactly where we were when we saw that ludicrous over-head kick.

He might have out-dine his boss' thundering eft-footed volley to win his current club a Champions League title as a player.

The winger had his best game ever in a Real Madrid shirt. Maybe his best game ever. Period.

#1 Loris Karius

Worst performance by a keeper in the final of the Champions League?

What do you say? I mean what do you say...

The roller-coaster career the German has had in the red part of Merseyside has been nothing short of baffling. Banished to the wings, not so long ago, after a series of similarly fatal errors, the keeper was only once again handed an opportunity to wear the gloves for Liverpool because of an equally and, according to Klopp, an even more incompetent Simon Mignolet.

The legend of Liverpool's keeper woes rivals Arsenal's failure to finding a holding midfielder. Even back in 2005, in our humble opinion, Liverpool were lucky to not pay the price for a less-than-commanding goalkeeper in Jerzy Dudek. On the night though, it seemed Loris Karius was hell-bent on making sure that Madrid complete a hat-trick of titles.

Bale's second goal seemed to just go through his weak hands, into the back of the net. Karius ballooned it into his own net. But the first was even worse. An absolute give-away.

A hopeless punt forward was gathered easily, but instead of playing it out to one of his own, he seemed to bet on himself to deflect the ball into his own goal off Karim Benzema. No other explanation for it. Shambolic keeping.

It was heartbreaking to see it all end in tears for the German, as he walked across to the travelling support and asked for forgiveness with his hands up to show remorse. Never fun to witness that, but we feel we've seen the last of the goal-keeper at Anfield. What a terrible way it could be to leave the club. But it undoubtedly needs to happen.