“Almost faultless in the biggest game in club football” – Liverpool fans name ‘absolutely outstanding’ Reds star as ‘only positive’ from Champions League loss to Real Madrid
Liverpool fans will be dealing with a painful loss against Real Madrid in the Champions League final, but they have some praise for Ibrahima Konate. The Reds' defender had a strong presence in the first third, and he was remarkable to behold in defense.
Although Liverpool did concede a goal, the stalwart defender remained on top of his game, winning key duels and making recoveries to keep the Reds out of trouble. His brilliant performance did not go unnoticed from the Kopites, who took to Twitter to shower praise on the 23-year-old centre-back.
Here is a selection of tweets from the Anfield faithful:
Ibrahima Konate can hold his head high. He was almost faultless in the biggest game in club football and he's only 23. He will go very far.
We were absolutely horrid.
Konate and Van Dijk can hold their heads up, but that’s about it.
Ibou Konaté, despite losing that final, was fucking spectacular by the way. Like, for his age, that was absolutely stellar. Someone tell me my eyes were wrong in what I saw.
All things aside Konate is the fucking future mate the kid is unreal
I know it's hard to talk positives but Konate was absolutely outstanding, the best outfield player on the pitch
I know it's hard to talk positives but Konate was absolutely outstanding, the best outfield player on the pitch
Fans might have looked to mercurial defender Virgil van Dijk to hold down the forte. While the Dutchman played his role, it was Konate who stole the show for the Reds.
The young, towering, centre-back garnered praise for his defensive efforts against Real Madrid, but his mood will certainly be dampened by the eventual loss.
It will not be much consolation, but the Reds now have two important centre-backs who could lead them to more trophies and finals in the future. With Konate still young and already impressing, he will likely take over Van Dijk's role at the backline when the 30-year-old retires.
Liverpool couldn't score the one goal they needed against Real Madrid
This Champions League final will make it three finals in a row where the Reds have been unable to score a single goal. While they have enjoyed two trophy wins thanks to penalty shootouts, it will be a source of concern that their vibrant attacking trident could do so little against Madrid.
Liverpool won the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup with both finals going into extra-time and penalties, but they were unable to make that happen again. Real Madrid scored the first and only goal of the game via Vinicius Junior and put up a massive defensive effort to keep the Reds from equalizing.
Their inability to score in recent finals came back to bite them as the game ended after 90 minutes with the Madridistas carrying the trophy home.