Liverpool's Champions League final loss doesn't affect their elite status, but it will test mental toughness

PARIS — The biggest test of Liverpool, the team manager Jurgen Klopp has taken to calling his «mentality monsters,» has yet to come. There is little doubt Klopp's side are among the finest in the Premier League and the Champions League today but the quest to amass the trophy haul befitting that status goes on.

As he surveyed the scene at the full-time whistle in the Stade de France after Saturday's 1-0 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League final, Klopp consoled each of his crestfallen players in turn, beginning a healing process that has to turn this latest disappointment into fuel to drive them on again next season.

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Sunday's parade back home may help. The club took a decision to organise a celebration of their marathon 64-game campaign before knowing whether they would be able to show off the two prizes that matter most. Instead of an unprecedented quadruple, Klopp and his squad will only be able to hold the FA Cup and Carabao Cup aloft. For most teams in any ordinary season, that may rank as a satisfactory return but Liverpool sailed so close to immortality for so long this year that considered reflections will inevitably be tinged with a degree of disappointment.

After falling agonisingly short of the Premier League title in finishing second to Manchester City, they were beaten by a solitary unanswered goal as Real Madrid wrote a fresh page in history with a record-extending 14th European Cup success. Picking up these players to go again after such a remorseless campaign will not be