Loris Karius Adamant He’s Moved on From Champions League Final Nightmare
Karius #Karius
Loris Karius has insisted that he’s moved on from the mistakes he made in the Champions League final against Real Madrid in 2018.
The 27-year-old dropped two clangers for Liverpool in the showpiece event in Kiev, carelessly throwing the ball into the path of Karim Benzema before palming Gareth Bale’s simple long-range effort into the back of his own net.
Karius has not featured for Liverpool since – swiftly being replaced by Brazil’s Alisson Becker – and was initially farmed out to Besiktas on a two-year loan deal. Now, he’s back in the Bundesliga with Union Berlin, again on a temporary basis, and has insisted in a new interview that he’s put that infamous performance behind him.
“That was two years ago. I’ve played over 60 matches since,’ Karius told the Bundesliga’s official website.
“I’m here to play well. That doesn’t play a role anymore – I long put it behind me. The only people who want to talk about it are the journalists. It’s boring for me now.
“I’ve gained the sort of experience few have at my age, taken it all on board, positive and negative, and have come out stronger. I think some things, particularly here in Germany, were and are still taken too negatively.”
Karius went on to admit that his Liverpool career is almost certainly over, revealing that his spell at Berlin is an opportunity to prove he’s still got what it takes to perform at the highest level.
“I don’t see a future for myself at Liverpool now and didn’t want to just sit on the bench,” Karius continued. “The Bundesliga has always appealed to me as a German. And then achieving something with Union, with a team that’s young, hungry and in a similar situation to what I know from Mainz… It all convinced and appealed to me.
“The good performances I showed have been somewhat forgotten in Germany. That’s a shame. My goal is to prove myself here again. I was gone for four years. My drive is to show again that I’m still a really good Bundesliga goalkeeper.”