{"id":193940,"date":"2025-10-06T22:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193940\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T22:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:08:15","slug":"victor-osimhen-fires-galatasaray-to-victory-on-hellish-night-for-liverpool-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193940\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Osimhen fires Galatasaray to victory on hellish night for Liverpool | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reigning Premier League champions and league leaders may be held to higher standards than most, but cause for concern in Liverpool is justified. Arne Slot presided over back\u2011to\u2011back defeats for only the second time in his Liverpool tenure as Galatasaray<\/a> triumphed on a raucous night in Istanbul. The performance should trouble Liverpool\u2019s head coach more than the result.<\/p>\n

Liverpool were sloppy, again, suspect defensively, again, and short on ideas as they succumbed to Victor Osimhen\u2019s first-half penalty. Defeat would have been heavier had the Galatasaray striker not squandered two clear openings early in the second half but was deserved nonetheless.<\/p>\n

The visitors were almost reprieved by the award of an 89th\u2011minute penalty but even that did not go their way. The referee, Cl\u00e9ment Turpin, overturned his decision to penalise Wilfried Singo for a foul on Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 \u2013 the Galatasaray defender played the ball first \u2013 after reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor.<\/p>\n

Slot defended Liverpool\u2019s performance along with his decision to rest Mohamed Salah until the 62nd minute. He also blamed a disjointed second half on Galatasaray\u2019s tendency to go down at the slightest touch.<\/p>\n

Defeat, however, was largely self-inflicted.<\/p>\n

It was a surprise to see Salah on the bench for such a high\u2011profile European occasion even taking into account his modest start to the season and recent workload. Alexander Isak, Alexis Mac Allister and Conor Bradley were also benched as Slot made four changes from the side beaten at Crystal Palace<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Jeremie Frimpong took Salah\u2019s place with Dominik Szoboszlai stationed behind him at right-back again. The Hungary midfielder came in for a testing night against the pace of Baris Alper Yilmaz. The same could be said of the entire Liverpool team in the first half as Galatasaray embraced the occasion.<\/p>\n

Rams Park, or Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi to give Galatasaray\u2019s home their unsponsored name, pulsated with noise 45 minutes before kick\u2011off. Incessant, deafening whistles greeted every Liverpool touch after it. There was also a classy moment at kick-off when a tribute to Diogo Jota<\/a> was displayed on the giant screen and the digital hoardings around the arena.<\/p>\n

Okan Buruk\u2019s team have made a 100% start to the Super Lig season as they pursue a fourth consecutive Turkish league title but domestic dominance has not transferred into European competition often. This was only Galatasaray\u2019s second win in 19 Champions League<\/a> group games, coming off the back of a 5-1 trouncing at Eintracht Frankfurt on the opening night, and it seemed the entire club \u2013 players to fanbase \u2013 were determined to make amends.<\/p>\n

Victor Osimhen scores his early penalty for Galatasaray. Photograph: Francisco Seco\/AP<\/p>\n

Yilmaz scorched past Szoboszlai at Galatasaray\u2019s first attack. The forward was through on goal but, as at Selhurst Park, Alisson stood his ground well to make an important block. There would be no reprieve for Liverpool\u2019s makeshift full-back when Yilmaz next ran at him.<\/p>\n

Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 steered a free header wide from Cody Gakpo\u2019s cross as the visitors attempted to silence the din. Gakpo created another opening for Ekitik\u00e9 when slipping him through with a neat pass. Ugurcan Cakir stood tall and saved with his legs only for the rebound to fall to Gakpo. His volley was blocked on the line by Ismail Jakobs and 25 seconds later, after Florian Wirtz had squandered possession with an over-elaborate back-heel, Galatasaray were awarded a penalty. The hosts broke through Ilkay G\u00fcndogan and Yilmaz, who again attacked Szoboszlai from the left and cut back inside the defender before collapsing to the ground.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n

Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Yilmaz was caught in the face by Szoboszlai\u2019s trailing hand \u2013 it was more of a stroke of the stubble than a proper slap \u2013 but Turpin pointed immediately to the spot. Osimhen drilled the spot-kick straight down the centre of Alisson\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

Liverpool dominated possession and outnumbered the Galatasaray defence on several counterattacks without creating a clear opportunity. Cakir saved from Wirtz at close range, desperate defending prevented Ekitik\u00e9 and Milos Kerkez converting at the resulting corner, and Konat\u00e9 headed wide at the near post. But Slot\u2019s side were unconvincing at the back and almost punished again when Osimhen dispossessed Ryan Gravenberch before being tripped by the midfielder just outside the Liverpool area. The \u00a365m striker felt he was denied a clear goalscoring opportunity but Gravenberch was punished with a yellow card.<\/p>\n

Osimhen, a disruptive force all night, was gifted a chance to double the hosts\u2019 lead when he dispossessed Curtis Jones and burst through on goal. Jones atoned with a superb challenge. A mix-up between Konat\u00e9 and Gravenberch offered Osimhen another opening but he shot tamely at Alisson. The Liverpool keeper was injured in the process and had to be replaced by Giorgi Mamardashvili.<\/p>\n

Alisson\u2019s replacement was hardly troubled once Osimhen departed with an injury. Neither was Cakir, despite Liverpool penning Galatasaray in during the closing stages. Another unconvincing display for Slot to digest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reigning Premier League champions and league leaders may be held to higher standards than most, but cause for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-193940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}