Trent Alexander-Arnold’s error costs Liverpool but he remains essential

As the final whistle blew at the Stade de France Trent Alexander-Arnold was closest to the Madrid bench, swaying to one side as the white shirts came haring on, gripped with an entirely familiar delirium. At which point Alexander-Arnold just stopped.

For the next five minutes, in the middle of the smoke, the pounding noise, the crackle of static across this vast craning bowl, he stood completely still at the edge of the centre circle, bent forward slightly as though in physical pain. Jürgen Klopp came across to offer a hug. A phalanx of photographers skirted past tactfully. Eventually, as the Uefa plinth was rigged into place, he just lay down alone on the turf and held his head.

Oh, Trent. There will of course be a temptation, one that will be eagerly taken up, to single out Alexander-Arnold in the wake of this 1-0 victory for Real Madrid, to linger on the error of defensive cover in the buildup to the only goal of the game, a mistake that will be flagged and sighed over, subjected to the light pen of doom, the gifs of death, the eight-shot still montage of shame.

Rightly so on the face of it. This was a game of half-chances and collisions and condensed space – all apart from that one second-half moment when it suddenly came apart. For Liverpool the story of this season will now be one of glory, but also of falling short, or rather seeing others fall just a little further. One point to lose the league, one goal to lose this final. Close, but only two cigars.

There is though another side to that equation. Madrid are exceptionally good at this, so cruel, so surgical in the way they find and prey on weakness. They’ve done this to every single one of the Premier League’s top three now. This is a thing that happens.

And