Confetti popped for another team.

Another captain lifting that big, old trophy.

Silver medals clutched in hands, not worn around necks.

It’s over. But it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.

I could probably admit to shielding myself. Like I said before, I probably didn’t let myself dream too deeply about it, just in case. Just in case this scenario, that I know so well, played out already. It’s like a couple lines from one of my favorite songs.

“I know the last page so well, I can’t read the first. So I just don’t start. It’s getting worse.”

Liverpool went to Kyiv with hopes and dreams and many, many songs to sing. They came back with injury worries and silver medals and hardened hearts.

But it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.

So, what now? Where do Liverpool go from here? The news would tell you that Liverpool need to spend money, major money, this Summer to even compete at the same level Real Madrid have been doing. A better keeper, an attacker who can make a better impact should our record breaker be unavailable. The criticisms come hard and fast from the armchair managers and board members. Ousmane Dembele to join Liverpool this summer is 17/10 with RedsBet.

The season, the final, is all over. There is nothing else to be done.

When I cried outside my bar, as the other fans cleared out quickly, I cried for the team. I cried more for the players and the club, than I did for myself. I cried for Salah, watching helplessly from the dressing room as he got treated. I cried for Karius, living with his mistakes for the rest of his life. I cried for Hendo, and the magical night slipping through his fingers, the chance to prove all the naysayers wrong about him.

(I still can’t bring myself to look at all the photos from the end, of the squad sobbing on the pitch).

That’s what hurt for me. And it might have hurt even more if we hadn’t made it to the Champions League next year. If all of that work and all of those nights and all of those stressful league games, down to the wire, had been for nothing. Back Liverpool to win the Champions League next season at 21/2 with RedsBet.

If we didn’t have another shot next season at the same competition, we’d all be feeling a little bit more lost. A lot more devastated.

There will be other nights, but it isn’t this one.

So what now? Where do we go from here? How do you fight back after a loss like that? A series of freak, accidental yet catastrophic events led to our defeat. The team played well, there are now steps to be taken to fortify a squad that no one thought would get to the final at all.

There’s business steps they can take. Buying, selling, loaning players. Training to go through and tapes to watch. Eventually. After the World Cup. Nabil Fekir to join Liverpool this summer is 2/17 with RedsBet.

Because it’s still over and we still have to go again. We start fresh come August. We start anew and hopefully, hopefully, with fire under our asses and hearts made of stone. Thicker skin and stronger legs. Surer hands and feet, clearer minds. We aren’t temporarily disoriented by the power of the evening, the atmosphere that isn’t our own.

We’ll have been here before.

We have a title to take, trophies to bring home. Even when Madrid have all the f****** luck, we know we have the skill, the talent. The heart and the strength. There’s a reason our club is on that trophy five times and it may not have been this squad, but it’s in our souls.

That should be our focus, going forward. Finding the fire that brought us to that final in the first place, bringing it to every match going forward. Every single domestic cup game, every league game, every Champions League match. Our presence at that final was a statement to the rest of the continent.

Be ready. Because when we go again, we will remember those mistakes.

That’s what we’ll do.