Almost as soon as videos, photographs and witness accounts chronicling the disgraceful scenes around the Stade de France began to emerge - UEFA and the French authorities tried to circle their wagons.
The knee-jerk reflex was depressingly, outrageously familiar to the people of Merseyside - smear innocent football fans to cover the grotesque incompetence of those charged with maintaining public safety. This time, however, the truth has not been as easy to suppress.
Cynical, sneering comments on social media are one thing, but the blatant untruths tumbling from the lips of French politicians have astounded even Liverpool fans used to obfuscation and lies by those in positions of power. This week Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin made the preposterous claim that around 40,000 fake tickets were in circulation amongst Liverpool fans, while his colleague, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera, suggested that Reds supporters posed a "very specific" threat compared to their Spanish counterparts.
Mr Darmanin also doubled down on claims that there were only problems with Liverpool fans, implying they were the instigators of the trouble. Today, that lazy smear was blown apart by Real Madrid officials.
Demanding answers from the French, a spokesman for Real wrote: "We understand that what should have been a great celebration of football for all the fans who attended the game turned into unfortunate events that have caused deep outrage around the world.
"As has been clearly seen in the revealing images offered by the media, many of the fans were violently assaulted, harassed, and robbed. Some events that also took place when they were driving in their cars or buses fearing for their physical integrity. Some of them even had to spend the night in the hospital for injuries received. Football has transmitted to the world an image far removed from the values and objectives that it must always pursue.
"Our followers and fans deserve a response and that the relevant responsibilities be cleared up so that situations like the ones experienced are eradicated forever from football and sport."
The ECHO has been inundated with stories of those caught in the violence. Videos circulating show distressed, stunned fans i ncluding young children pleading with police to stop spraying tear gas into their faces.
Opportunistic local crooks appeared to pick off disorientated, confused fans outside the stadium with seeming impunity - helping themselves to tickets, wallets and phones.
Mums, dads, the elderly - the ECHO understands even a Liverpool Crown Court judge and senior barristers were caught up in the brutality and tear-gassed by police. This was a failure of policing, a failure of crowd-control, a failure of the duty of the authorities to protect the public. That is not disputable.
Parisian officials were delighted to take hosting duties from St. Petersburg when the barbaric Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted a change in venue - how they could have failed so spectacularly is baffling.
But the truth will come out, and this time it won't take three decades.
