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It was just after 6am in Jurgen Klopp's Formby home. The party with family and friends was in full flow.

There was the Liverpool manager, his baseball cap on back to front, with his arms around old pals, leading the sing-song.

To his right was his trusted assistant Peter Krawietz and Campino, the lead singer of German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen, who had Klopp's silver medal draped around his neck. To his left was Johannes B. Kerner, a well-known TV personality in Klopp's homeland.

Their defiant chant which was captured on video went viral.

“We saw the European Cup.

“Madrid had all the ****ing luck.

“We swear we'll keep on being cool

“We'll bring it back to Liverpool!”

Those words were repeated time and time again. Each rendition louder than the previous one.

It was typical Klopp. No doom and gloom, no hint of self-pity. Klopp was adamant that this was the start of something special, not the end.

An hour or so earlier he had addressed his devastated Liverpool players in the meeting room at Melwood following their return to Merseyside from Kiev.

They had flown straight home from the Ukrainian capital after the heartache of losing the 2018 Champions League final to Real Madrid.

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“I was pretty much the only one that was not crying from all my family,” Klopp later revealed.

“Even my agent was crying because he felt so much for me. They were only that sad and disappointed because they thought I was.

“I was of course but I didn’t think it was the end of something. It’s only another step. Life is like this.

“We have to accept sometimes that there is someone better, there is someone else with a little bit more luck. I accepted it long ago.

“I know I will be there again. I will try to go to the next final again and then we will turn it. That’s how I see it.

“I told the players in that meeting that I was proud of them. It was a fantastic journey to Kiev. It was outstanding.”

(Image: PA)

Events in the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium cut deep. Losing a major final always hurts but this was especially cruel.

For the opening half hour Liverpool had more than held their own against Zinedine Zidane's star-studded side.

Then the game turned on the skulduggery of Sergio Ramos, who cynically slammed 44-goal top scorer Mohamed Salah into the turf.

The Egyptian attacker, who landed heavily on his shoulder, tried to battle on but had to admit defeat as his record-breaking season ended in tears.

Liverpool were rocked by Salah's early exit and never truly recovered.

“Losing Mo was a big blow for us,” Gini Wijnaldum told the ECHO.

“At half-time the manager said that it looked like we were devastated about Mo but we had to let it go because it could not change. We had to deal with it but it was difficult.”

Ramos struck again early in the second half when he elbowed Loris Karius in the head. Moments later the Reds keeper inexplicably rolled the ball straight into the path of Karim Benzema, who gleefully accepted the gift.

Sadio Mane's equaliser briefly gave Liverpool hope but it was swiftly whipped away by the impact of substitute Gareth Bale.

His sensational overhead kick restored Real's advantage and the Welshman settled proceedings when his 30-yarder somehow slipped through Karius' grasp.

Klopp kept his counsel about Ramos on the night but on the pre-season tour of America two months later he didn't hold back when asked about the major flashpoints which went unpunished by Serbian referee Milorad Mazic. He described the Real skipper as behaving like a “brutal wrestler”.

Liverpool had surpassed all expectations by making it to Kiev but the limitations of the squad were ultimately laid bare with Klopp forced to bring on Adam Lallana and Emre Can, who both lacked match fitness after injuries.

As Real Madrid celebrated a hat-trick of Champions League crowns, a shell-shocked Karius dropped to the turf at the final whistle, wanting the ground to swallow him up.

(Image: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Klopp's wife Ulla comforted the German keeper's sobbing mother in the stands.

“I'm infinitely sorry to my team-mates, for you fans, and for all the staff. I know that I messed it up with the two mistakes and let you all down,” Karius later tweeted.

As a tearful Karius begged the travelling Kop for forgiveness, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain broke down and sobbed uncontrollably.

The Reds midfielder had gone on to the pitch on crutches to console his team-mates – weeks after undergoing surgery on the serious knee injury he suffered in the semi-final win over Roma.

“All this emotion came rushing over me and it’s something I’ve never really experienced before,” Oxlade-Chamberlain recalled.

“I was out on the pitch and I’m not a crier at all, but I just knew how much everyone wanted it – the city, the fans, the club, the players.”

You could hear a pin drop when the players returned to the dressing room with their dreams of European glory crushed.

Left-back Andy Robertson finally emerged to face the waiting media with his silver medal hidden away in his wash bag.

(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)

“It is still an achievement to get here but second is as good as last in my book,” the Scotsman said.

“It’s just devastation in the changing room. We are all upset. We have been on a good journey but we have just fallen short.

“Hopefully we will have more nights like this. People say that you might not get to another one but we will try. We can use this as motivation.”

Captain Jordan Henderson described Liverpool's fourth successive major final defeat and the third of Klopp's Anfield reign as the lowest point of his professional career.

“It is the worst feeling I have had in football, but I believe in this team, I believe in this manager,” Henderson said.

“I believe we are going in the right direction. It is so difficult to stand here now and say that but that is the truth. It's how I feel. We have to make it happen.

“I believe we will be back in the Champions League final again. I believe we will be challenging in all competitions domestically.”

(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Liverpool's transfer plans for the summer were already well advanced. Naby Keita was arriving from RB Leipzig for £52.75million and within two days of Kiev the Reds had completed a £40million swoop for Monaco's Fabinho.

The combative Brazilian holding midfielder was viewed as the perfect replacement for Emre Can, who was on his way to Juventus.

Triggering Xherdan Shaqiri's £13million was a no-brainer for an attacker of his calibre and experience with the Reds happy to wait until after the World Cup to complete the formalities.

Klopp had opted not to pursue an alternative after a £53million deal for Lyon attacker Nabil Fekir collapsed due to the Reds' concerns over an old knee injury.

The big dilemma for the manager was how to handle his distraught goalkeeper.

Liverpool had already pin-pointed Roma's Alisson Becker as the perfect upgrade five months before the final but agreeing a fee with the Serie A outfit was proving problematic.

Karius, who had gone to America on holiday to escape the fallout from Kiev, soon found himself back in the headlines.

Klopp had taken a phone call from the legendary Franz Beckenbauer, who alerted him to the possibility that Karius had been concussed by Ramos in the final. Beckenbauer had been speaking to renowned German doctor Hans Müller-Wohlfahrt.

(Image: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

After the footage was reviewed closely, Karius was advised to visit specialists Dr Ross Zafonte and Dr Lenore Herget at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital.

Brain scans showed that Karius had 'visual spatial dysfunction' which can result in an inability to judge where objects are.

Klopp said: “How can we imagine that a player, who didn't show any signs, not in that game, not before that game, that he will do these things, that it's not influenced by the knock?

“It wasn't 'tell us what we want to hear'. He's a world-class doctor. Out of the tests, 26 of 30 said it was concussion.

“Some say 'finally, Liverpool have an excuse for losing the final'. It's not like that.

“How could we keep that back? We couldn't say 'now we know it but we won't tell anyone because people will think it's an excuse'.

“It's very important for Loris. We had to protect him. At the time Loris didn't say a word but that's normal. He thought he was 100% responsible.”

The medical bulletin and the extended summer break did little to rebuild Karius' shattered morale.

When he returned in pre-season he was a bag of nerves in the opening friendlies – his confidence was clearly shot to bits.

Liverpool stepped up their pursuit of Alisson and in mid-July they finally got their man.

Having initially been quoted £90million by Roma, sporting director Michael Edwards stood firm and thrashed out a £65million deal. Briefly, it was a world record fee for a keeper.

(Image: Liverpool FC)

Alisson had been on the radar of goalkeeping coach John Achterberg since 2013 when former Reds keeper Alexander Doni alerted him to a talented youngster coming up through the ranks at Internacional.

The scouting reports became more frequent and more glowing. It was his commanding performances in the Champions League for Roma which saw him rocket to the top of the Reds' list of targets.

Klopp spoke in recruitment meetings with Edwards and FSG president Mike Gordon about Alisson being “ game changer”.

The manager had initially planned to keep Karius as back-up and off-load Simon Mignolet, but the plan changed in pre-season when it became crystal clear that Karius desperately needed a change of scenery.

An offer from Besiktas of a £2.25million loan fee and potentially a further £7.25million to follow if the transfer becomes permanent in the summer of 2020 was too good to turn down.

With £170million worth of talent added to the squad post-Kiev, Kopites had seen the show of ambition in the transfer market which they craved.

Mohamad Salah's willingness to pen a new five-year contract was a ringing endorsement of the direction the club was heading in.

Klopp was convinced that areas of glaring weakness had been addressed and that Liverpool were well equipped to launch another challenge for glory.

In order to boost that mission he had decided to make some key changes to the Reds’ style with a greater emphasis on game-management and control. They would be less gung-ho and more measured.

Klopp’s resurgent Liverpool were ready to go again.

The events of Kiev didn’t break their resolve, it only made them stronger.