From Arne Slot's red machine, this was a white flag performance. The pressing question now is how quickly and to what extent they can get it out of their system.
This was a calamitous effort from the Premier League leaders. Slow, uncertain, tentative and, when everything was on the line, unresponsive. Liverpool slipped through this final like ghosts, leaving nothing behind only regret.
Everybody loses in sport at one time or another. But to lose like this is quite something else. This was a no-show – a failure – so vast and so damning that the only comfort to be taken over what will now feel like a long international break is that their lead at the top of the Premier League is huge.