The 2018 Champions League final will be remembered for one magnificent goal from Real Madrid substitute Gareth Bale and two errors from Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, but the moment which really turned the tide was Sergio Ramos taking Mohamed Salah out of the game, and possibly the World Cup.
Ramos isn’t hard, as some have described him, he’s brilliantly sly, and his actions went a long way to his side lifting third European Cup in a row.
There have also been suggestions that he didn’t mean to take Salah out of the game and it was merely a tactical foul, but going to ground with all his weight on the Egyptian’s arm in the manner he did, the only outcome is a broken arm or dislocated shoulder. There was ample time to let go, but instead he chose to cling on even more tightly.
The intention was clear, and the result was exactly what he wanted. Before this incident Liverpool were the better side, but after it, from Croxteth to Kyiv, heads dropped.
Jurgen Klopp, though not wanting to use the incident as an excuse for why his side lost, described it as a wrestling move.
“Of course it was a big moment in the game,” said the Liverpool manager.
“I know if you say something like that after a game you lost, it sounds like you are a bad loser, but it was, for me, kind of a harsh challenge.
“It’s like wrestling a little bit, and it’s unlucky then that Mo fell on his shoulder. It’s a serious injury — worse, a really serious injury.
“It’s very bad for Mo, very bad for us, and very bad for Egypt. I don’t like that part of the sport but it’s part of it, and things like this can happen.”
Klopp could be forgiven for being a bad loser on this occasion, but can Ramos be forgiven for being a bad winner?
The centre back plays the heel like few others in football, and his unnoticed cheap shot on Karius, shortly before the keeper made his first mistake will have played a part in rattling the Liverpool stopper.
The slyness was summed up later in the game when he went to ground holding his face after Sadio Mane came within a couple of yards of him.
Every club would like a player like Ramos, apparently, and the experience he brings has helped his side become one of the most successful in the history of the European Cup. Especially tonight, even without doing much in a football sense and regularly having to be bailed out by his centre-back partner, Raphael Varane; and especially when he broke Atletico Madrid hearts with his late equaliser back in 2014.
It was a first Champions League final for the players in red, but an umpteenth for those in white, who became the first side since Bayern Munich in 1976 to win three in a row.
The Liverpool players will learn from it, and while there were eventually a number of footballing reasons for their 3-1 defeat, not least Karius’ errors, lack of depth, and their non-existent midfield, they will take a lot of non-football pointers from this game.
Both sides had their weaknesses, but Real’s were only really on show when Salah was on the pitch. His departure swung the game the way of the Spaniards. There was no Bale on Liverpool’s bench, just an Adam Lallana lacking match fitness, and they look short of options once one of the front three is absent.
There are lessons to be learned for Liverpool in many areas, but that they were in a Champions League final, and in a position to learn these lessons in the first place, is only a positive for them, even if the actions of Ramos leave a bitter taste and a sense of ‘what if?’
