From tears to beers: how Klopp bounced back after defeat to Madrid in 2018

And yet, Klopp being Klopp, there was a happy ending and a story.

- RICHARD JOLLY

It was the morning after the Champions League final and Liverpool found the trophy in a European Cup-winning  captain's bathroom. Or they pretended they did, anyhow, because the silverware actually belonged to Real Madrid.

Amid the despondency of defeat in 2018, after the tears of returning to Merseyside, they sought solace in taking pictures with a vase that resembled the famous trophy, and drunkenly singing songs with the frontman of a German rock group whose name translates as "the dead trousers".

But a dream had died, rather than an item of clothing. "It started as one of the worst nights in my life," Klopp recalled. It included being beaten by Real, with Loris Karius horribly at fault for two goals and Mohamed Salah's shoulder dislocated by Sergio Ramos.

And yet, Klopp being Klopp, there was a happy ending and a story. It may be suitably surreal that it scarcely belongs in the managerial handbook of how to deal with disappointment - try teaching it on coaching courses - but it can now be framed in the context of subsequent success.