Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool: 3 key battles that decided the game

#1 Loris Karius vs himself

It will require immense mental fortitude from Karius to come back from this performance

It is time to address the elephant in the room - Loris Karius. Not often does a keeper make two high-profile blunders in the same game and not often in the final of the UEFA Champions League.

Karius's performance will live in infamy - along with John Terry's slip while taking a penalty in the final of the Champions League, or Steven Gerrard's slip leading to Liverpool losing the PL title.

The first error can be attributed to a clever presence of mind from Benzema - the French forward stuck his leg out to intercept Karius's ball and it luckily ended up in the back of the net.

The second error was an outright howler, as the German failed to catch or parry an audacious shot from Bale and it once again found its way into the net, the final nail in the coffin. Karius will not be forgetting both of them anytime soon, and he will not be allowed to.

He ended the game with the gesture of asking the fans for forgiveness, begging them to forgive him and tears rolling down his cheeks. Hopefully, the Liverpool board have the same kind of mercy to spare. With rumors around of Liverpool launching a bid for Roma's Allison, this might have just sped things up.