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5 min: Gomez flings a long throw in from the right. Cakir is on point this time, and plucks from the sky. Then a couple more loose passes out from the back by Gala. Wirtz, Ekitike and Szoboszlai overplay when someone should take responsibility and have a whack at goal. Liverpool may rue failing to take advantage of these mistakes. Gala are all over the shop!
3 min: Galatasaray have started in a strangely nervous fashion. Lemina gifts the ball to Wirtz, who rolls an instinctive first-time shot wide left from long distance. Cakir was out of position, so that was a good chance to snatch an early goal. Wirtz should have done better.
1 min: A positive start by Liverpool as they stream forward through Szoboszlai, Ekitike and Salah. The latter tries to reach the byline down the right but runs the ball out for a goal kick. All accompanied by ear-splitting whistles.
Galatasaray get the ball rolling. Liverpool desperately hoping to improve on the events of last September.
The teams are out! And there’s some BREAKING NEWS: the atmosphere is hella hot at the Ali Sami Yen†. Cim Bom Bom! Galatasaray wear their classic red and yellow halves, Liverpool are in third-choice bottle green, a colour that may send shivers down the spine of the Candy generation. We’ll be off in a couple of Zadok-the-Priest-soundtracked minutes.
†: This isn’t BREAKING NEWS
The disciplinary tightrope. Quite a few members of the Galatasaray squad are tiptoeing along it. Victor Osimhen, Noa Lang, Uğurcan Çakır, Ismail Jakobs, Davinson Sánchez, Abdülkerim Bardakcı, Roland Sallai and their coach Okan Buruk are all one booking away from suspension. Curtis Jones is the only Liverpool player in immediate danger of missing next Wednesday’s second leg at Anfield.
As for the Galatasaray team … there is just one change to their starting XI from the 2-3 loss at Juventus last month. Wilfried Singo replaces Roland Sallai at right-back. Their line is led by Victor Osimhen, whose seven-goal haul in this season’s competition is only bettered by Kylian Mbappé (13), Anthony Gordon (10) and Harry Kane (8).
Arne Slot gives his views on TNT Sports. “You can feel what it means to these [home] fans … the good thing is we’ve experienced it already, so it’s not new … I hope that’s going to help us … we are playing at Anfield as well, when our fans will show what support means … [in the league phase] we conceded after three minutes a big chance … not long after a soft penalty … that changed the game … they were able to use the time to their advantage … gave the fans and the players a lot of momentum and energy … that made it very very difficult.”
That 1996 flag-planting affair stood as the greatest act by any Liverpool-minded figure in the grand city of Istanbul until … well, I’ll not insult your intelligence by developing that point any further. Just as well referee Manuel Mejuto González fell for Sami Hyypia’s puppy-dog eyes early in the second half, though, huh?
Pre-match postbag. “Hoping to see Slotto run out to the centre circle and plonk a dirty great YNWA flag there to show he, us and them all mean business” – Ian Copestake
He’s making an oblique reference to this iconic moment in Galatasaray history, isn’t he, readers. The video below is well worth six minutes of your time. Not least because Graeme Souness’s pay-off at the very end is priceless.
Liverpool make five changes to their starting XI from the 3-1 FA Cup win at Wolves last Friday. Alisson is injured so Giorgi Mamardashvili takes his place in goal. Milos Kerkez replaces Andy Robertson at left back. Ibrahima Konaté returns in central defence, so Joe Gomez moves to right back, with Curtis Jones dropping to the bench. Rio Ngumoha and Cody Gakpo make way for Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike.
The teams
Galatasaray: Cakir, Singo, Sanchez, Bardakci, Jakobs, Torreira, Lemina, Baris Yilmaz, Gabriel Sara, Lang, Osimhen.
Subs: Sen, Guvenc, Sallai, Icardi, Sane, Yunus Akgun, Elmali, Gundogan, Kutucu, Asprilla, Ayhan, Boey.
Liverpool: Mamardashvili, Gomez, van Dijk, Konate, Kerkez, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Ekitike.
Subs: Woodman, Misciur, Jones, Gakpo, Robertson, Frimpong, Nyoni, Nallo, Morrison, Ngumoha.
Referee: Jesus Gil Manzano (Spain).
Preamble
Since winning the Champions League in 2019, Liverpool’s performance in the knockout stage of the competition has been, by their own lofty standards, little short of abysmal. Home and away R16 defeats to Atletico Madrid in 2020. A meek quarter-final surrender to Real Madrid in 2021. Home and away R16 defeats to Real Madrid in 2023. Last year’s flattering R16 win in Paris followed by defeat at home. To give fair measure, they did reach the final in 2022, and while that’s a fairly whopping great caveat, the overall point surely stands. Given their historical status as European royalty, the Redmen need to raise their game.
Which, to be fair, they’ve been doing in Europe this season. Their travails in the Premier League are well documented, but they won six out of eight games in the group stage, that 4-1 thrashing by PSV Eindhoven a really weird outlier. Their only other defeat was the result of an unfortunate and extremely soft penalty decision … the only problem being, it was at Galatasaray, which is the fixture they again head into tonight. And Gala are not a club Liverpool like playing: the Reds have won just one of five previous games against the Turks in the Champions League, and have never beaten them away. Throw in Gala’s exceptional home record in European Cup knockouts – they’re unbeaten in 10 since losing to Atletico Madrid in 1973, for goodness sake – and Liverpool have quite a lot of historical baggage to shake off if they’re to head back to Anfield with any sort of advantage.
So if all of that doesn’t tempt fate into gifting Liverpool a positive result tonight, we don’t know what else we can do. Kick-off is at 5.45pm GMT. It’s on!
