Key events
GOAL! Galatasaray 5-2 Juventus (Boey 86)
This one might be the best of the lot! Leroy Sané plays a ball into the Juve box down the right channel. Lloyd Kelly intercepts, but dilly-dallies, allowing Victor Osimhen to overpower him, steal the ball and nick it to the in-rushing Sacha Boey, who romps into the box, takes one touch, and launches a fierce drive across Michele Di Gregorio, off the left-hand post, and in. Lovely goal from an attacking point of view; more dismal Juve defending, though.
Galatasaray 4-2 Juventus. Wilfried Singo tries his luck from the best part of 30 yards. Inches wide of the bottom-left corner. Michele Di Gregorio probably had it covered, but it was a mighty close-run thing.
Galatasaray 4-2 Juventus. Gala smell blood. They’re clearly not of a mind to settle for this. Mauro Icardi, formerly of Inter and with eight career goals against the Bianconeri in 14 appearances, comes on for Barış Alper Yılmaz, who is finally done with causing damage for the evening.
GOAL! Galatasaray 4-2 Juventus (Lang 75)
Juve have fallen apart. Khephren Thuram gives Lloyd Kelly a hospital pass in his own penalty area. Victor Osimhen takes it off the startled Kelly’s toe, poking it to Noa Lang, who is one on one with Michele Di Gregorio. The keeper spreads himself at Lang’s feet; Lang simply lifts the ball gently over him and into the net. This is an astonishing capitulation! Credit to Gala, though, for pressing and pressing and pressing.
Galatasaray 3-2 Juventus. Luciano Spalletti may as well have kept on Andrea Cambiaso, who might have been treading the disciplinary tightrope himself, but was at least playing well. That 21-minute farce-tinged show from Cabal will go down as one of the great Champions League nightmares.
RED CARD: Cabal (Juventus)
The half-time substitute Juan Cabal has lasted just 21 minutes. He misjudges the flight of a long pass down the Gala right, allowing Barış Alper Yılmaz to spin him. He wrestles Yılmaz to the ground, and that’s a clear second yellow. So in the lead-up to Noa Lang’s equaliser, he was nutmegged then caught out of position as Yılmaz crossed; gave away the free kick that led to Sanchez’s goal; nearly got himself sent off for laying hands on the ref; and now this. One of the great fiasco-infused cameos.
Galatasaray 3-2 Juventus. This is absolutely top-notch entertainment in Istanbul. Juve come back at their hosts, Lloyd Kelly meeting a corner coming in long from the right by heading wide. A real sense of more goals in this game.
GOAL! Galatasaray 3-2 Juventus (Sanchez 60)
The free kick is just to the right of the Juve box. Gabriel Sara whips it in viciously. All Davinson Sánchez has to do is tickle the ball with his eyebrow to send it across Michele Di Gregorio and into the top left. He couldn’t miss! Sara put that on a plate, a world-class delivery. And the hosts respond to Juve’s turnaround with one of their own. What a match this is!
Galatasaray 2-2 Juventus. Juan Cabal brings down Barış Alper Yılmaz, flying down the right, just to the side of the box. Cabal goes into the book, and nearly earns a second booking by pawing at the referee’s arm, Danny Makkelie telling him to get his hands off in angry fashion. And from the resulting free kick …
Galatasaray 2-2 Juventus. That was Noa Lang’s first goal for his new club, since joining Galatasaray on loan from Napoli, where the 26-year-old Dutch winger suffered an underwhelming few months since joining the Italian champions from PSV in the summer.
The 8pm teamsheets
Benfica: Trubin, Dedic, Tomas Araujo, Otamendi, Dahl, Barreiro, Aursnes, Prestianni, Rafa Silva, Schjelderup, Pavlidis.
Subs: Ferreira, Antonio Silva, Barrenechea, Bah, Bruma, Ivanovic, Sudakov, Lukebakio, Cabral, Manu, Rios, Anisio Cabral.
Real Madrid: Courtois, Alexander-Arnold, Rudiger, Huijsen, Carreras, Guler, Valverde, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Mbappe, Vinicius Junior.
Subs: Lunin, Carvajal, Alaba, Gonzalo Garcia, Ceballos, Francisco Garcia, Diaz, Mendy, Mastantuono, Cestero, Martinez, Pitarch.
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Reggiani, Anton, Bensebaini, Ryerson, Bellingham, Nmecha, Svensson, Beier, Brandt, Guirassy.
Subs: Ostrzinski, Meyer, Yan Couto, Ozcan, Chukwuemeka, Sabitzer, Silva, Adeyemi, Inacio, Kabar, Krevsun, Benkara.
Atalanta: Carnesecchi, Kossounou, Djimsiti, Kolasinac, Zappacosta, de Roon, Ederson Silva, Bernasconi, Pasalic, Zalewski, Scamacca.
Subs: Rossi, Sportiello, Hien, Bakker, Musah, Sulemana, Samardzic, Bellanova, Scalvini, Ahanor, Krstovic, Vavassori.
Monaco: Kohn, Vanderson, Teze, Faes, Henrique, Camara, Zakaria, Akliouche, Golovin, Adingra, Balogun.
Subs: Stawiecki , Lienard, Biereth, Idumbo-Muzambo, Bamba, Diatta, Coulibaly, Toure, Nibombe.
PSG: Safonov, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes, Zaire Emery, Vitinha, Neves, Kvaratskhelia, Dembele, Barcola.
Subs: Chevalier, Marin, Lucas Beraldo, Zabarnyi, Goncalo Ramos, Doue, Lee, Hernandez, Fernandez, Mbaye.
GOAL! Galatasaray 2-2 Juventus (Lang 49)
Galatasaray haul themselves level early in the second half! Barış Alper Yılmaz hits a lively low shot-cum-cross from a tight angle on the right. Michele Di Gregorio parries, but can only tee up Noa Lang, who can’t miss from a couple of yards. Bedlam!
Galatasaray 1-2 Juventus. The second half starts in Istanbul. Juve have made a second sub, Juan Cabal replacing Andrea Cambiaso. That’s the last we’ll see of Cambiaso in this tie, as he was booked in the first half and misses the second leg as a result.
For the completist, here are the teamsheets from the Ali Sami Yen. Federico Gatti came on for Bremer just after the half-hour mark, the Brazilian defender limping off with a hamstring issue.
Galatasaray: Cakir, Sallai, Sanchez, Bardakci, Jakobs, Torreira, Gabriel Sara, Baris Yilmaz, Yunus Akgun, Lang, Osimhen.
Subs: Sen, Guvenc, Icardi, Sane, Elmali, Gundogan, Kutucu, Asprilla, Ayhan, Singo, Boey.
Juventus: Di Gregorio, Kalulu Kyatengwa, Bremer, Kelly, Cambiaso, Thuram, Locatelli, Koopmeiners, Francisco Conceicao, Yildiz, McKennie.
Subs: Perin, Pinsoglio, Gatti, Zhegrova, Boga, Adzic, Kostic, Openda, Miretti, Cabal.
HALF TIME: Galatasaray 1-2 Juventus
The early kick-off at the Ali Sami Yen in Istanbul has reached the halfway mark. Gabriel Sara gave the hosts the lead on 15 minutes, slotting into the bottom left from the edge of the box. But Juve hit back immediately, Teun Koopmeiners slotting from close range after Uğurcan Çakır parried Pierre Kalulu’s header. Koopmeiners then completed the turnaround on 32 minutes with an absolute pearler, one-twoing into space down the middle with Weston McKennie, before roofing from distance into the top-left corner. Roland Sallai missed a good chance to equalise for Gala just before the break. So that’s been eventful.
The big game of the evening is undoubtedly Benfica v Real Madrid. The absurd Keith Houchen-channeling antics of Anatoliy Trubin have seen to that …
… though it’s low-level astonishing that these two famous old clubs, steeped in golden-age European Cup history having won the first seven stagings between them, had only ever met twice before last month’s match. Benfica won the 1962 final 5-3, then put Real out 6-3 on aggregate (5-1, 1-2) in the 1964-65 quarters. Eusébio helped himself to five goals over those three matches. All totted up, Benfica have won three and lost one, to the aggregate tune of 15-8. Not sure Real Madrid have had their trousers more frequently handed to them, freshly pressed and laundered, by any other club on the European scene. It’s not quite Dundee United’s genuinely side-splitting competitive hex on Barcelona (P4 W4) but it’s still something.
Preamble
It’s the first night of the first legs of the Champions League play-off round … and it promises to be a humdinger. We’ve got three kick-offs at 8pm …
… plus one early match that’s already got going and is just about to reach half time …
… so more of that in a minute. No point hanging around. Let’s dive straight in. It’s on!
