Jürgen Klopp proud of ‘special season’ and vows Liverpool will bounce back

Jürgen Klopp claimed defeat in the Champions League final should not detract from Liverpool’s “special season” but admitted his team had themselves to blame for the defeat by Real Madrid.

Thibaut Courtois produced an outstanding display to deny Liverpool, and Mohamed Salah in particular, as the Anfield club’s dreams of a seventh European crown and cup treble vanished in Paris. Klopp refused to blame a 63rd game of the campaign as the cause but rued Liverpool’s failure to beat the former Chelsea goalkeeper.

“They scored a goal and we didn’t,” the Liverpool manager said. “That’s hard to take but we have to respect that. I congratulate Madrid and I have congratulated their president outside personally. When a goalkeeper is man of the match something is obviously wrong for the other team. We had three really big chances when Courtois made incredible saves. I would have loved more of them. In the last third we could have done better.

“Madrid had one shot on target and scored. We had nine on target and we couldn’t score. That’s the difference. We had 24 shots and I remember Courtois making three world-class saves. With our quality we can cause more problems.”

Liverpool end a season that carried hopes of a quadruple with the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. But despite missing out on the biggest prizes, their manager insisted he was proud of the campaign.

“I feel the pride already,” he said. “I told the boys that in the dressing room, but it was clear I was the only one who felt that. The boys will need longer. They played an outstanding season. The two competitions we didn’t win were by the smallest possible margins – one point from City in the Premier League and one goal against Real Madrid in the Champions League. That says nothing