{"id":339537,"date":"2026-03-10T23:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/339537\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T23:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:14:11","slug":"sloppy-liverpool-face-uphill-task-in-champions-league-following-defeat-against-galatasaray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/339537\/","title":{"rendered":"Sloppy Liverpool face uphill task in Champions League following defeat against Galatasaray"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Premier League champions arrived in Turkey hoping to kick-start a disappointing second season under the Dutchman, only to return home reeling from their second loss of the campaign at rocking Rams Park.<\/p>\n

Liverpool, just like in September\u2019s league phase encounter, fell to a 1-0 defeat at Galatasaray, where the VAR\u2019s intervention, sloppy play and poor decisions meant Mario Lemina\u2019s early goal secured the hosts a first leg advantage.<\/p>\n

The midfielder headed home as Slot\u2019s side were caught napping at a corner seven minutes into a frantic, end-to-end first half that saw Florian Wirtz waste chances before and after the opener.<\/p>\n

Giorgi Mamardashvili, in for injured Alisson Becker, produced some important saves and Ibrahima Konate was breathing a sigh of relief after Victor Osimhen\u2019s second-half goal was ruled out for offside in the build-up.<\/p>\n

The defender thought he had equalised, only for the VAR to adjudged he had handled to leave Liverpool trailing heading into next Wednesday\u2019s second leg at Anfield.<\/p>\n

\"Liverpool's<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s Alexis MacAllister<\/p>\n

Slot admitted on the eve of the game that the Reds had been taken aback by the ear-splitting Rams Park atmosphere in September, yet they looked unmoved during a sharp start.<\/p>\n

Wirtz wasted a great chance from the edge of the box just two minutes in with goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir out of position, but early aggression in attack was undone by tame defending as the hosts threatened for the first time.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Sara\u2019s deep corner was all too easily directed back across goal by Osimhen for Lemina to throw himself at the ball and head home.<\/p>\n

Osimhen nodded wide as Galatasaray sought a quickfire second as an entertainingly relentless half developed.<\/p>\n

Unmarshalled Wirtz wasted another excellent chance when striking into the ground and straight at Cakir, before Konate went close and back-up Mamardashvili produced a pair of fine stops at the other end.<\/p>\n

An awkward Noa Lang cross was sneaking home until the intervention of the Georgia international, who would soon deny Davinson Sanchez\u2019s powerful header.<\/p>\n

Osimhen struck a snapshot over after a Konate error and Slot\u2019s frustration was visible on the touchline as the first half concluded.<\/p>\n

Dominik Szoboszlai stung the palms as Liverpool returned from the break rejuvenated, with Alexis Mac Allister striking just wide after a long throw-in.<\/p>\n

\"Referee<\/p>\n

Referee Jesus Manzano during a VAR review for a disallowed Liverpool goal<\/p>\n

Szoboszlai whipped narrowly wide from 20 yards, but the Reds nearly went further behind in the 62nd minute.<\/p>\n

Konate\u2019s errors saw him left helplessly watching Osimhen turn in a cross he failed to clear, only for offside against Baris Alper Yilmaz in the build-up to see it ruled out.<\/p>\n

Hugo Ekitike seemed set to capitalise on that let-off four minutes later when bursting through to get away a near post shot that Cakir superbly saved.<\/p>\n

Liverpool looked to have finally eked out an equaliser in the 70th minute when Szoboszlai\u2019s corner went in off Konate during a scrum, only for the goal to be ruled out for handball after a VAR check.<\/p>\n

Cakir had to be alert when Sanchez directed substitute Andy Robertson\u2019s cross at goal, with Ekitike heading over and Cody Gakpo slamming wide near the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Premier League champions arrived in Turkey hoping to kick-start a disappointing second season under the Dutchman, only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5859,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-339537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-liverpool-football-club","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}