Real Madrid win Champions League as Vinícius Júnior strike sinks Liverpool

For Liverpool it was a game too far. Number 63 of a season in which they have contested every single one that has been open to them was supposed to bring the crowning glory, the moment to define Jürgen Klopp’s era.

There have been six trophies under the manager, including two massive ones – the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League the following season. But to beat Real Madrid in an almost impossibly glamorous showpiece to complete a cup treble promised a new, even more rarefied high.

It was not to be. On a night when the kick-off was delayed by 37 minutes due to problems for the Liverpool fans outside the stadium here on the north side of Paris, their team gave everything only to run into more than Real’s mystique, the line that the Spanish champions parrot about how they do not lose these finals.

Standing in the Real goal, Thibaut Courtois had a night when he made outstanding saves and also saw the defenders in front of him put their bodies on the lines, repeatedly thwarting Liverpool.

Klopp’s team started brightly but they were reeled in by the old masters, for whom this was a 14th triumph in the competition. Vinícius Júnior struck the decisive blow just before the hour and, no matter what Liverpool did thereafter, Courtois found a way to deny them. Carlo Ancelotti has made history by winning the trophy for the fourth time as a manager. Liverpool are left with only bitter regrets.

The pre-match had been chaotic, the Liverpool team bus stuck in traffic at 7.35pm local time – less than 90 minutes before the scheduled kick-off time; it would make it in five minutes later – and the match then delayed as thousands of Liverpool fans were stuck outside the stadium. Some of them said the authorities had closed one