Dortmund try to outrun reality before sipping from cup of sadness again | Jonathan Liew

Runners-up find out that playing well is often not enough against Madrid after spurning chances and gifting goals away

The medal ceremony may be the most painful bit. Borussia Dortmund do not want to receive them, and judging by the impatience of his manner, Uefa’s Aleksander Ceferin has very little interest in handing them out. And so the medals are not so much draped around Dortmund necks as shoved on them, with a certain peremptory curtness, and without the faintest pretence that Ceferin knows or cares who most of the recipients are.

Jadon Sancho, to be fair, gets a faint flicker of recognition, a microscopic straightening of the lips only detectable by VAR. Karim Adeyemi, the man who missed those two big chances in the first half, receives a “well, what can you do” shrug. None of the rest, even the departing Marco Reus, are granted so much as eye contact by the Uefa president. Julian Ryerson rips his medal off at the first opportunity. Edin Terzic, the coach, is moist in the eyes. Meanwhile there are Dortmund fans in the stands with crumpled faces, broken and vengeful. Angry at whoever dared allow them to hope.

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