Reds boss Klopp and gutted skipper Henderson defend their sorry stopper

JURGEN KLOPP and Jordan Henderson refused to single out Loris Karius last night as the Liverpool goalkeeper apologised for the clangers that cost his team the European Cup.

‘My mistakes have lost the team the final,’ said Karius, who was inconsolable after gifting Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale goals in Real Madrid’s 3-1 win. ‘I’m sorry... sorry to everyone.’

Former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson branded the first mistake, when a Karius throw-out struck Benzema and bobbled into the goal, as ‘a schoolboy howler’. His second blunder was to allow Gareth Bale’s long-range strike to go straight through his hands.

Klopp, however, didn’t have the heart to vent his anger at the 24-year-old German. ‘Loris Karius knows it, everybody knows it,’ said the Reds’ boss (right). ‘That is a shame in a game like this, in a season like this. I feel for him, he is a fantastic boy. The second mistake is because of the first one.

‘The bad parts are difficult to get rid of in a game like this.’

Captain Henderson was unclear what had happened for the opener but was prepared to give his goalkeeper the benefit of the doubt with the second.

‘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,’ he said. ‘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 just weren’t good enough on the night.’ Ex-England captain Frank Lampard was less sympathetic while commenting on BT Sport. ‘On a human level you can feel sadness for Loris Karius. But mistakes like this are not for this level,’ he said. ‘The first one, which changed the momentum of the game, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.’