Memorable moments: Karius’ misses cost Liverpool the Champions League win

The 2017/18 Champions League final still haunts the dreams of Liverpool fans to this day, perhaps waking them from their slumber in terror at the thought of the performance of Reds goalkeeper Loris Karius, behind whom two of the three goals went in and Klopp’s team’s hopes of winning the coveted trophy were dashed.

May 26, 2018 was circling on the calendar and fans were already looking forward to the club’s last game before the World Cup in Russia. Liverpool came to Kiev to take on Real Madrid, who aspired to win their third consecutive Millionaire’s Cup.

Tough semi-finals

Coach Klopp’s charges beat a resilient AS Roma by just one goal in the semi-final and could look forward to their first LM final since 2007. Zidane’s boys had to fight their way past Bayern Munich with Ribéry and Robben still in the line-up. It was a tough job.

With no absentees

Both coaches had basically all players available before the Kiev final, or rather no one was missing from the starting line-up or key substitutes.

Thus, the White Ballet had Ronaldo and Benzema in the line-up, with Isco and the tried-and-tested trio of Casemiro, Kroos and Modric below them, Carvajal, Varane and Ramos at full-back and Marcelo manning the left flank. Keylor Navas was still guarding the goal. One of the best teams in LM history.

The Reds had the striking trio of Mané, Firmino and Salah in attack, Wijnaldum, Henderson and the hard-working Milner operating in midfield, with a defence of Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, captain Van Dijk and Robertson behind them, with Karius protecting the goal from disaster.

Salah out, Carvajal out

The match started and it wasn’t until a quarter of an hour into the game that there was any activity in front of either goal, Cristiano Ronaldo was of course responsible when he fired in from the right but he missed Karius’ goal by a whisker. At the other end, Alexander-Arnold tried to shoot after a rebound to the left post, but Navas flashed a superb save, although he could barely see over the blocking Ramos and Marcelo.

Just as the half-hour played out, the first huge blow came for Liverpool fans, the out-of-phase Salah had to make a substitution after a much-discussed tackle by Ramos and it was clear that much of the offensive potency of Klopp’s squad was going with him.

Lallana had to replace him. After another six minutes, there was a forced substitution on the other side as well when right back Carvajal had to come on and was replaced by defensive all-rounder Nacho.

Not long after that, Benzema enjoyed a brief moment of joy for offside when he finished Ronaldo’s deflected shot into the net. Apart from Benzema’s successful cross from the left and a shot just wide of the left post, nothing of substance happened in the first half and it was a quiet 0:0 going into the box. Unprecedented things were written into the fate of the second half.

The first mistake by Karius

It started in a hurry. Just three minutes after the change of sides, the dashing Isco hit only the crossbar when trying to flick over the onrushing Karius and the red-clad side could only breathe a sigh of relief. In the 51st minute, however, the crowd at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev witnessed a rare moment at the top level, to say the least.

The situation was born completely innocent, Benzema charged behind the defence to a pass from Kroos, but it was out of the French cannonballer’s reach and became easy prey for the Reds goalkeeper. The German goalkeeper then stuck the ball on his chest and was already looking around to see where he was going to play the ball.

However, as if he didn’t see Benzema lingering nearby, he threw the ball straight at the former Lyon player’s right foot, who managed to dislodge it so deftly that the rounded nonsense rolled away from her and straight to the left post and into the net. The look of incomprehension that appeared on all the faces of the Liverpool players and the management team was telling.

The equaliser

But the response of the Anfield Road side was exemplary and the Reds got the equaliser just four minutes later from a Liverpool corner kick. Milner centred from the corner flag, Lovren won an aerial duel with Ramos and found Mané accurately, who steered the ball into the net in front of Navas.

The joker Bale

In the 61st minute, Karius shone when he again made the shooting Isco bury his head in his hands after a swerving shot and clear his conscience. It was the former Malaga player who was withdrawn from the field three minutes later and his place was taken by Bale, who proved to be a genius joker for coach Zidane.

In the 64th minute, Marcelo had the ball on the left for a centre, the Liverpool defenders were punishingly far away from the Welsh footballer in the whitewash and paid much more attention to Benzema and Ronaldo. That backfired on them, however, and after a pass from the Brazilian midfielder, Bale hooked a foot-forward pass into the air and scissors it past Karius to give Karius no chance. One of the most beautiful goals in the history of the Champions League final.

Mané was dragging the Reds offense and trying to play even for injured teammate Salah. Twenty minutes before the end of regulation time, he asked for the ball with movement, guided the ball from the right side into the middle and with a shot on the ground into the left post, he scared the Real players.

On the other side, Cristiano Ronaldo again broke into the chance after a pass from Casemiro, but Andy Robertson earned a discharge for a great defensive save when he put his left hand in front of the ball at the last moment and did not allow the Portuguese superstar to shoot. Karius continued to lap up the White Ballet’s raids and did his best to stave off the roughness from the start of the second half.

Karius’ second mistake

And he would have succeeded, but for the 83rd minute and a seemingly inconspicuous action from the speedy Bale. A simple steer from the right and the Welshman reached out to shoot from a good 30 yards, hitting the target in exemplary fashion, but right where Karius was standing. But the German goalkeeper was not having his day and so a routine save turned into a disaster and a two-goal lead for the defending champions.

Van Dijk just lowered his head in disbelief after that goal, he knew it was all over, he knew his team would not recover from that solar shot. Then, although Lovren and co. did everything they could to at least dramatize the match it came to nothing and after two horrific misses by Karius they went back to Anfield with only the second place medals.

A year later, the team around Van Dijk fixed their taste and could properly fondle the Eared Cup, but not too surprisingly Loris Karius was no longer in the line-up.

Source:: Livesport, UCL