Liverpool captain absolves Karius from blame after calamity display

Joe Williams

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson refused to blame Loris Karius after he made two costly mistakes in their 3-1 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid.

Karim Benzema opened the scoring when he blocked Karius’ throw out before Gareth Bale’s shot for Real Madrid’s third goal was fumbled into his own net by the Liverpool goalkeeper.

“The first goal I am not sure what happened, whether Karim Benzema stopped it with his hand, and then the overhead kick he could do nothing about,” Henderson told BT Sport.

“The third goal, the ball had loads of movement on it. It is not the mistakes Loris Karius made, we got to the final as a team and lose as a team. It is about everybody.

“We were not good enough on the night, and I am so proud of the players and the fans who came out for us on the night. I hope we can carry on and get into more finals and use it going forward.

“Football moves forward, we have a World Cup coming up so you have to move on and the season starts really quickly. We have to be proud of getting here. It will hurt for a while but we have to keep going.”