Ian Hart: Witch-hunt unnecessary, but not unexpected

His two mistakes resulted in Real Madrid’s first and third goals, and while Gareth Bale’s overhead kick for Real’s second is probably the greatest-ever goal scored in the history of the competition, Karius’s performance will forever be cited as the reason for Liverpool’s defeat in Kiev.

Even without any kind of affinity to Liverpool, I watched the events unfold on Saturday and really felt for the hapless German keeper.

Unfortunately, it’s the way of football – an outfield player can commit a howler and more often than not won’t concede a goal, but error by the man between the sticks most of the time doesn’t have come with the same safety net.

At the end of the match I was surprised and disappointed about how long it took for any of his teammates or members or the coaching staff to go and console Karius.

Subsequently, in the aftermath of the final, the police are now investigating death threats issued to the player on social media.

Losing a football match is one thing, but there really are some specimens about.

Ultimately, this is human error we’re talking about.