Can Liverpool’s season be seen as a success?

“In the end it is all measured by the colour of the medal you get after the game.” That was Jurgen Klopp’s perspective on Liverpool’s season when asked about it on Friday. Rarely can that ever have felt as cruel as it did in Paris the very next evening.

This was a season that might have delivered four trophies - an historic quadruple to echo down the ages. With less than two hours of an epic campaign left to play, it briefly looked likely. Instead, Liverpool are left to console themselves with two domestic cups.

Confounded by Real Madrid.

The Premier League title would have been a bonus given the lead that Manchester City had built up, but Liverpool readied themselves for this Champions League final in expectation. There was a conviction among players and supporters that they were the better team.

Klopp acknowledged Madrid's experience, of course. But he did not want to embrace the underdog tag. He wanted to believe that if his team played their own game they could beat anyone. Twenty-three shots rained in on Thibaut Courtois' goal. None beat him.

The problem for Liverpool in the Premier League is that Manchester City have taken relentlessness to new levels. The difficulty in the Stade de France was that the mentality monsters met their match - a Real Madrid with reasons to believe of their own.

Two powerhouses. That is how Trent Alexander-Arnold had described this meeting. But Real Madrid knew better than to engage in a test of strength. Instead, they waited, never seeming to doubt that the chances would come. Others would not have kept so calm.

Not when the first nine shots were all by Liverpool, the first touch in the box not coming for half an hour. Not when Mohamed Salah had three times as many chances as their