Mohamed Salah has said that Liverpool 'deserved' to beat Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final.
The Reds were beaten 1-0 in Paris in a final that was overshadowed by Liverpool fans being treated abhorrently outside the stadium. The club and supporters are still searching for answers as French authorities and European football's governing body try and explain what happened.
Inside the Stade de France, Jurgen Klopp's side could not find a way past Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who put in a man-of-the-match display. His heroics kept his team in the game, producing world-class saves to deny not just Salah but Sadio Mane and the rest of the Liverpool team.
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A single Vinicius Junior goal proved to be the difference, preventing Liverpool from lifting the Champions League for the second time under Klopp. Though he admitted that Courtois earned his award, Salah is adamant that the trophy should have returned to England with Liverpool and not Spain with Madrid.
"We deserved to win, we had more chances, I got two or three quite big ones but, each time, Thibaut Courtois made incredible saves," Salah said in a wide-ranging interview with France Football. "It's his job, Real recruited him for that. He earned his man-of-the-match award. It was his evening."
The loss last month was the second time the Spanish giants have beaten the Reds in a European Cup final under Klopp since the German took over in 2015. Salah was taken off in the first half of the final in 2018 due to a dislocated shoulder and had used that incident as motivation to not only get to this year's final in Paris but win the competition.
Though it wasn't to be, Salah has said that he will once again use the defeat as motivation to reach the final in Istanbul next season and win the Champions League, something he and his team-mates did 12 months after losing to Madrid four years ago.
He said: "Here again, I draw inspiration from the past. In 2018 we lost the Champions League final, already against Real Madrid (1-3) and the following season we were European champions. That's what I'm aiming for. We must always look ahead, not complain."
