Liverpool suffered fresh heartbreak at the hands of Real Madrid in a Champions League final on Saturday night.
Jurgen Klopp's side were beaten 1-0 by the La Liga champions in Paris after a second-half goal from Vinicius Jr. It means the Reds, who also lost the 2018 final to Madrid, end the season with the FA Cup and Carabao Cup trophies to their name, as their bid to win an unprecedented quadruple just felt short.
But the match was overshadowed by what happened outside the Stade de France. Liverpool have since requested a "formal investigation" from UEFA over what supporters were subjected to before the final got under way.
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp sends parade message to Liverpool supporters after heartbreak
The national media were in attendance in Paris, along with our own Paul Gorst, and here is a round-up of what they had to say.
David Hytner, via The Guardian
“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.”
Miguel Delaney, via The Independent
“The most chaotic of runs ends the only way it could - with the control of champions. There was always a sense Real Madrid's name was on the trophy, and it is now for a record-extending 14th time. Jurgen Klopp’s side gave one of their worst performances of the season on the biggest night, even if so much of this occasion failed to live up to it. The scenes on the pitch paled next to the dreadful circumstances outside, which saw the game delayed by 36 minutes and fans who had tickets pepper-sprayed. The failure of the authorities here will now dominate the headlines, but it is Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti who will dominate the records.
“The 14th Champions League for the club was also the fourth for Carlo Ancelotti as a manager, seeing the Italian surpass Bob Paisley and Zinedine Zidane as the most successful in the competition’s history in its own right. It came from this most coached and calculated of performances. Madrid did not need the chaos of early rounds because, after an ultra-defensive first 20 minutes, they were so controlled.
“Liverpool’s quest to win every cup this season came undone against Madrid’s apparent ability to win almost every Champions League. It is remarkable and now stands at five in the last nine years. Not even Liverpool’s sense of magic in this competition can match that, and they failed to produce any here, their hopes falling - it must be said - through the gap left by Trent Alexander-Arnold for Vinicius’ winner.”
Dan Ripley, via Mail Online
“Assailed by chaos off the pitch before the game, Liverpool were undone by the beautiful anarchy of a Real Madrid team at the Stade de France last night that has made a habit of plucking victory from the jaws of adversity. Once, they had hoped to seal a Quadruple here in Paris but their season ended as support acts for a Madrid side that won this competition for the 14th time.
“Outside the Stade de France, Liverpool’s fans had been made to wait for hours in the spring sunshine, the kick-off growing nearer and nearer, the confusion growing and growing, the congestion starting to seem dangerous and worrying. Gates were closed for no apparent reason. Supporters were doused with pepper spray. The kick off was delayed by 36 minutes and anger and impotence were everywhere.
“Once the game eventually began, Liverpool, whose team bus had been trapped in traffic on the way to the stadium, attempted to introduce order to the chaos and somehow defuse Madrid’s reputation, which they have built with a series of miracle comebacks during this Champions League campaign, for conjuring victory from the most unlikely of circumstances. Jurgen Klopp’s team dominated the first half but could not convert any of their chances, thwarted time and again by Real’s goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois. And when they had thrown everything at Real, the Spanish champions did it again. Undismayed by Liverpool’s superiority, secure in their belief that winning this trophy again was their destiny, Vinicius Jr rounded off a stunning team move to score the winner early in the second half.”
Oliver Brown, via The Telegraph
“This defeat was so bruising for Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp could be forgiven for seeking comfort in the bottom of a glass. In 2018, his response to succumbing painfully to Real Madrid in a Champions League final was to become outrageously drunk at his house in the company of a German rock band. A second gruesome night at Real's hands, captured by chaos outside the Stade de France and unbearable stress within, threatened to test his powers of abstinence to the limit.
“For once, Klopp could not furnish all the answers when it counted most. Just as Luis Diaz, arguably the revelation of Liverpool’s season, turned in his most anonymous display yet, Trent Alexander-Arnold was left hopelessly exposed at the back post by the brilliance of Vinicius Junior. Klopp exhorted his players with all the passion he could muster, but there comes a point against Real Madrid when the nettle must be grasped. Time and again, Liverpool spurned their invitations, as a campaign of quite staggering endurance culminated not in the rarest of trebles but in a haul of two domestic cups.
“A precious feat was in Liverpool’s grasp here, a treble that arguably could bear comparison to Manchester United’s class of 1999 for prestige value. No English club, after all, had grasped this particular trio of trophies in one year. That it eventually proved beyond him was testament to Real’s unrivalled obduracy in major finals, the Solomonic wisdom of Carlo Ancelotti, not to mention the remarkable reflexes of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.”
Paul Gorst, via The Liverpool ECHO
"There's something about Real Madrid's white-shirted surety when it comes to this competition and given their mind-boggling sequence of results just to get here in the first place, maybe Liverpool were simply playing a bit-part role in the Spaniards' own story of destiny? They have now won this tournament a grand total of 14 times.
"But the real story here is how the wonderful allure of Real Madrid versus Liverpool, in Paris, for the European Cup, was reduced to something of a sideshow. For what looked like at least hundreds of fans who handed over fortunes to attend this event, they were locked out, pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed.
"The pre-match shambles that unfolded outside the Stade de France has cast a long, dark shadow over the events inside it on a night when the hype didn't live up to its cinematic billing."
