Key events
HALF TIME: Galatasaray 1-0 Liverpool
Galatasaray’s impressive home record against Liverpool continues apace. Can the English champions respond in the second half?
45 min +6: … but though Bardakcı’s shot pinged up and onto Szoboszlai’s arm, neither referee nor VAR shows any interest in awarding one. To be fair, that was from close range in a crowded box, and Szoboszlai knew nothing about it. But that would have put the tin lid on a difficult first half for Liverpool’s makeshift right-back.
45 min +5: Bardakcı drives the ball into the box. Ekitike hoicks it away. Galatasaray want a penalty, though …
45 min +4: … but then Osimhen barrels down the left and cuts back for Singo, whose shot squirts out for a goal kick. Liverpool try to play out from the back, and Gravenberch gifts the ball to Osimhen, who advances towards the box. Gravenberch trips him from behind, and that’s a free kick inside the D. Gravenberch is booked. No chance of a red card, as Osimhen was surrounded. But this is a big moment now for Liverpool. They have to survive this last act of the half.
45 min +2: All a bit scrappy as the half fizzles out.
45 min: There will be three additional first-half minutes.
44 min: Singo buys a soft free kick off Kerkez down the Galatasaray right. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Liverpool box. Gundogan swings the ball in, but that’s easy pickings for Alisson.
42 min: Akgün has a chance to release Yilmaz down the middle, but seriously overcooks the pass. As Alisson claims it, Yilmaz offers Akgün some beneficial advice.
40 min: Torreira high-kicks Jones and this is getting a bit spiky now. Another free kick for Kerkez out on the left. This time he sends it straight into the box … and the flag immediately goes up for some overly aggressive Liverpool pushing. Free kick. Pressure off.
38 min: A break in play so Jones can get the bloody nose Lemina’s just given him patched up. Konate needs some treatment as well, having been hit upside the head earlier in the move. Both are fixed and will be OK to continue.
36 min: Jones tries to burst into space down the middle and is crudely checked by Lemina, who goes into the book. The Gala midfielder very fortunate he only copped for a ticking-off upon bringing down Gravenberch earlier. But he’s on the disciplinary tightrope now.
34 min: Wirtz finds himself in a pocket of space and time just outside the Cimbom D. He shoots! He clanks the ball into the nearest defender! It’s just not happening for Wirtz in a Liverpool shirt. Not yet. It’ll surely come.
33 min: Konate heads egregiously wide left from a couple of yards out. He should have scored. Then Galatasaray break through Osimhen down the right. Osimhen tries to float a chip over Alisson from distance, but the keeper gets back just in time to claim. The linesman puts his flag up for offside, but that was closer than he thought. Had Osimhen found the net, VAR would have had to get the old rulers out.
32 min: Gakpo chips a cross from the left towards Frimpong, who wins a header at the far post and cushions the ball down for his good friend Wirtz. Wirtz swivels, then digs out an effort that’s heading into the top right. Cakir claws it around the post, and from the resulting corner, there’s a meleé in the six-yard box. Neither Kerkez nor Ekitike can poke home. The ball’s deflected out for another corner, from which …
30 min: Osimhen gallops down the right and pings in a low cross that Konate has to hook out for a corner under pressure from Yilmaz. From the resulting set piece, Sanchez tries his luck with an overhead kick from the middle of a crowded box. Full marks for effort, if nothing else. But once again, Liverpool do not look 100 percent assured at the back.
28 min: Wirtz tries a Gravenberchesque spin in midfield and is easily dispossessed by a combination of Sanchez and Torreira. But with the hosts flooding forward, the referee awards Wirtz a generous free kick. Liverpool’s big signing still not up to speed.
26 min: Ekitike sends Gakpo striding into space with a cool flick down the left flank. Gakpo drifts infield and has the option of playing Wirtz clear, but hesitates and that particular opportunity is gone. The ball’s shifted right for Frimpong, who can’t find anyone with a low cross. Liverpool look good going forward, but the final-third confidence isn’t quite there.
24 min: Kerkez pulls the ball back instead of delivering the free kick into the box, and play’s shifted to the right, from where Szoboszlai crosses. As the aerial ball floats in, Konate is penalised for shoving an opponent to the ground. What a waste.
23 min: Gakpo sashays his way infield from the left, cutely chopping his way past a couple of players before being clipped by Torreira. The referee thinks about it for a while, then awards a free kick in a dangerous position. Kerkez to take.
22 min: Liverpool continue to play it patiently around the back. The home fans continue to whistle and jeer. Pantomime season soon!
20 min: There were 23 seconds between Sanchez’s off-the-line clearance from Gravenberch’s shot, and the award of the penalty.
18 min: That’s a wretched start for Szoboszlai, who has been left for dust twice already by Yilmaz, and given away a penalty kick. Galatasaray causing him problems where Arsenal could not.
GOAL! Galatasaray 1-0 Liverpool (Osimhen 16 pen)
Osimhen runs up to the ball … stops … performs the tippy toes … then whips a shot down the middle, Alisson having finally committed himself. Clinical!
Penalty for Galatasaray!
14 min: Ekitike is sent scampering clear down the middle. He whiffs his shot when one on one with the keeper. Or maybe a fluffed attempt to round the stopper. Either way, the ball breaks to Gravenberch, who tries to slam the loose ball home. The shot’s cleared off the line by Sanchez. Wirtz tries to tee up Ekitike again, but misplaces the pass. The hosts break through Yilmaz, who enters the box down the left … then goes over when feeling Szoboszlai’s arm flap into his face. Penalty!
12 min: Gravenberch looks to spin Lemina and is wrestled down by the Galatasaray midfielder. Had it been later in the match, Lemina’s surely getting booked, but the referee stops short of that, simply dealing out a lecture.
10 min: Liverpool seem more than happy to draw the whistles. Some patient possession at the back irritates the crowd some more. Then Jones has the opportunity to release Ekitiké down the middle, but misplaces the pass. Ekitiké waves his appreciation for the intent, nonetheless.
8 min: Gakpo crosses from the left. Ekitiké can’t get his header on target. Meanwhile Richard Hirst writes: “The highlight of Buruk’s goal was seeing Fulham legend (he scored in a 3-1 victory at Old Trafford, so he qualifies) Junichi Inamoto flitting across the screen. Loved him.”
7 min: Frimpong has been super busy down the right. Now he crosses hoping again to find Ekitiké, but Sanchez hacks clear from his six-yard box. A lot of whistling from the home support as the visitors enjoy a bit of possession in the Gala half.
5 min: Liverpool go up the other end and win another corner, Frimpong nearly finding Ekitiké from the right. Szoboszlai slaps the corner into the first man. We could easily have had a couple of goals already.
3 min: Yilmaz tears past Szoboszlai down the inside-left channel with such ease! He enters the box ahead of everyone else and waits for Alisson to commit himself. The keeper spreads himself big to block out for a corner. What a save! Nothing comes of the resulting set piece. But that was nearly the fastest of starts for Galatasaray.
2 min: Konate wins a header at the near post, but can’t direct it goalwards. The ball clanks harmlessly wide.
1 min: Liverpool have stationed Szoboszlai at right back, with Frimpong up in Salah’s usual position … and the latter wins a corner after 49 seconds. The former to take.
Liverpool huddle, the Gala fans whistle their displeasure, and then the visitors get the ball rolling. Roar! Growl! Bedlam!
The teams are out! And it’s not exactly earth-shattering news to tell you that there’s a planet-bothering noise being made at the Ali Sami Yen. What an atmosphere! Galatasaray are wearing their red-and-yellow parçalı (segmented) shirts. Liverpool are in bottle green, a colour that will give fans of a certain generation guaranteed ice-cold pulses down the spine should they visualise three thick white stripes creeping over the right shoulder. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Jeremie Frimpong, the man stepping into Mohamed Salah’s shoes this evening, talks to Amazon. “It’s my first time over here … the atmosphere looks crazy … [Galatasaray] are a great team … we come here to win … we don’t want to lose … we want to put on a good performance … everybody feels like we have to perform … football is my happy place.”
Liverpool boss Arne Slot turns up for a chat with Amazon, just about making himself heard over a PA system cranking out banger after banger. “It’s always special to come into a stadium where the fans are already there … these are the stadiums you want to play in … though I’m not playing it’s still nice to be part of it!”
Of the spectacular firework show put on by fans outside Liverpool’s digs last night: “Maybe I was in the back of the hotel but I didn’t hear it … or I slept really well!”
Then onto his team selection: “Jeremie [Frimpong] is not playing as a full-back, he is playing on the right wing … we have many games to play in a few days … there is another big game coming up [in the Premier League at Chelsea] … in many of our games, players have impacted the games coming off the bench … Mo scored three coming off the bench against Rangers … and I know who was the manager of Rangers back then, my current assistant Gio [van Bronckhorst] … so I know about this already!”
As for his side’s defensive issues: “Most of the reasons we conceded chances were only partly to do with our defence … it’s not picking up second balls … conceding chances from set pieces … losing balls in positions when you shouldn’t lose it … it’s just as much the midfield and the front three … not aggressive in second balls, duels, set-pieces.”
Slot also makes a long defence of his team’s current struggle with consistency of form, pointing out the big number of new signings who need to adapt, the players he has lost, and the amount of pre-season training missed by the likes of Alexander Isak, Alexis Mac Allister and Conor Bradley, among others. He caveats all of that by pointing out that Liverpool have so far lost only one game.
Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk – who scored a pearler for the club in that aforementioned 3-2 win in 2006 – talks to Amazon Prime. First up, with Liverpool in town, he’s asked about a man with a foot in both camps, Graeme Souness, who you may remember doing this after the 1996 Turkish Cup final, which had been played on Gala’s Istanbul rival Fenerbahçe’s turf …
“He’s a legend … it was a golden goal in extra time … he did an amazing thing with the flag … it was very dangerous … he is one of the most important coaches in Galatastaray history … I like him very much as a coach and a person!”
Then on Buruk’s famous goal against Liverpool …
“I scored an amazing goal … by chance I shot outside the box from a corner kick … always Galatasaray has good results against Liverpool and I hope they will today again.”
And finally tonight’s team, led up front by Victor Osimhen. “First time after his injury, he played ten minutes of the Turkish league game … today he will start … he is very important for us … also Mauro Icardi is very important for us … I have two big strikers but very different types … I will start with Osimhen but continue with Mauro.”
The teams
Galatasaray: Cakir, Singo, Sanchez, Bardakci, Jakobs, Lemina, Torreira, Akgun, Gundogan, Yilmaz, Osimhen.
Subs: Guvenc, Baltaci, Sallai, Gabriel Sara, Icardi, Sane, Elmali, Kutlu, Kutucu, Ayhan, Demir, Unyay.
Liverpool: Alisson, Frimpong, Konate, van Dijk, Kerkez, Gravenberch, Jones, Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Gakpo, Ekitike.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Gomez, Endo, Isak, Mac Allister, Salah, Bradley, Robertson, Ngumoha.
Referee: Clement Turpin (Bourgogne).
Team news: Salah and Isak start on the bench
Liverpool make four changes to the XI that started (very poorly, it has to be said) the game at Palace last Saturday. Jeremie Frimpong comes in for Conor Bradley at right-back, Curtis Jones replaces Alexis Mac Allister in midfield, and Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak make way for Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike up front. All the players stepping aside are named as subs.
For the hosts, Victor Osimhen starts for the first time since returning from injury last weekend. Mauro Icardi is on the bench, alongside former Manchester City star Leroy Sané. Another former City favourite, İlkay Gündoğan, starts, as does erstwhile Southampton, Fulham and Wolves midfielder Mario Lemina, one-time Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira, and ex-Spurs defender Davinson Sánchez.
Galatasaray lost their opening Champions League fixture 5-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt; Liverpool won theirs 3-2 at home to Atletico Madrid. On the other hand, Cimbom have won all seven of their Turkish Super Lig fixtures so far, while Liverpool have just lost their first Premier League game of the season, snapping a run of five wins, at Crystal Palace. And then Galatasaray have lost only three of their last 18 home European games, winning ten and drawing five, while Liverpool have won 13 of their last 14 Champions League group/league matches. So depending on which way you turn, there’s a stat that’ll make a good case for either team winning tonight. Something’s got to give. Draw?
Preamble
The last time Liverpool played Galatasaray away, in the Champions League group stage in December 2006, they sent out a team that featured Gabriel Paletta, Danny Guthrie and Lee Peltier. They lost 3-2, Robbie Fowler with both of their consolations. To be fair, it was a dead rubber, with Rafael Benitez’s team having already won their group, the Turkish side already knocked out, and Liverpool went on to reach the final. But that did happen.
Liverpool’s only other game away at Galatasaray was also in the Champions League, in February 2002. They drew that one 1-1, Jari Litmanen setting up Emile Heskey, part of a campaign that looked highly promising until Gerard Houllier inexplicably took off Didi Hamann in the quarter-finals against Bayer Leverkusen … but that’s a topic for another day. Anyway, it all means Liverpool are still searching for their first away victory over Gala. Will that quest end tonight? We find out from 8pm UK time onwards. It’s on!
