Victor Osimhen scored the decisive goal as Galatasaray beat Liverpool 1-0 in Istanbul, representing the hosts’ first points in this season’s UEFA Champions League (UCL) and a second successive loss across all competitions for the Reds.
Key stats
- Liverpool have only won two of their last 20 Champions League away games when trailing at half-time (D2 L16), a 2-1 victory at Manchester City in April 2018 and 3-2 at Villarreal in May 2022.
- Victor Osimhen is the first Nigerian player to score for as many as three different sides in the Champions League (Lille, Napoli, Galatasaray).
- Liverpool have just two clean sheets in their last 15 games in all competitions.
Highlights
Analysis
Liverpool dominated for large periods but Galatasaray restricted them to only two clear-cut chances in the whole match.
Match report
After suffering their first Premier League defeat of the season in their away clash with Crystal Palace, Liverpool may have hoped for an easier follow-up game than a trip to the vociferous Rams Park for a tricky meeting with Galatasaray.
If they were in any doubt, the Reds were made fully aware in the opening few minutes that this would be a tough assignment, with Alisson forced to thwart Barış Yılmaz in a one-on-one situation.
Just over 10 minutes later, the Liverpool goalkeeper was facing up to a Osimhen penalty after Yılmaz went down under a challenge from makeshift right-back Dominik Szoboszlai - only seconds after Cody Gakpo had an effort clear off the line at the opposite end of the pitch.
Osimhen took no chances with his spot-kick, thumping it straight down the middle to score his sixth goal in as many matches against English opposition.
Florian Wirtz threatened to provide a swift response when he drew a diving stop from Uğurcan Çakır, but in truth, Liverpool could have little complaints about the HT scoreline following an error-strewn display in the first period.
Another moment of sloppiness after the restart saw Osimhen intercept a poor pass and race through to fire a shot at Alisson, who picked up a game-ending injury in the process of making the save.
As a result, Arne Slot had to summon Giorgi Mamardashvili for his first UCL appearance, not long before the Reds boss returned to his bench to introduce Alexander Isak, Conor Bradley and the talismanic Mohamed Salah in a bid to find a way back into the contest.
As Liverpool continued to struggle against Galatasaray’s determined backline, they looked set to receive a lifeline when referee Clément Turpin pointed to the spot in the closing stages, only for the decision against Wilfried Singo to be overturned following a VAR review.
The subsequent eight minutes of added time were not enough for Liverpool, who have now failed to win their last three away H2Hs and head into a trip to Chelsea at the weekend with questions to answer after a second successive defeat.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray)
Click here to see all the stats of the match.
Post-match comments
Liverpool manager Arne Slot told Amazon Prime: "Again, disappointed. For me, this was a different performance (than the one against Crystal Palace) on and off the ball.
First half we played quite well and had a big chance to go 1-0 up. We are not so far (off their level from last season). This is sometimes what the schedule can bring, Galatasaray is not a simple game. We now play Chelsea away, a difficult game.
"The margains are small and they were last season. For the second time in a row we are on the wrong side.
"I saw a lot of things in the first half, but the second half was much less. I don't think in the second half there was a lot of playing time, their striker was on the floor four or five times. It was difficult to get momentum in the game."
On Alisson's injury, Slot added: "It's never positive if you go off like this. You can be sure he is not playing Saturday."
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk said Liverpool need to be 'mentally strong' after suffering back-to-back defeats.
He told Amazon Prime: "It is difficult to say at the moment (if Galatasaray deserved the win). They got the penalty and opportunities through our mistakes. A bit sloppy.
"We took the risk in posession and tried to find the spare man in midfield.That comes with risk. We broke through to the last line many times and we maybe have to do better there. In those moments, we made the wrong decisisions, they break on us and become dangerous.
"Losing is bad, these two games don't feel nice. I have been in the game a long time, it's about working and keeping your head down."
On whether they are lacking their strength they had last season, he added: "I think we have showed it already in many games this season but we haven't shown it for the full 90 minutes yet unfortunately. It is absolutely normal and nowadays you don't get the time from the outside world so you have to be strong mentally.
"I am very confident, we have to keep working and sticking together. We had a good start this year in terms of points tally.
"There shouldn't be panic, but improvement is needed."