Key events
Jeremie Frimpong, the man stepping into Mohamed Salah’s shoes this evening, talks to Amazon. “It’s my first time over here … the atmosphere looks crazy … [Galatasaray] are a great team … we come here to win … we don’t want to lose … we want to put on a good performance … everybody feels like we have to perform … football is my happy place.”
Liverpool boss Arne Slot turns up for a chat with Amazon, just about making himself heard over a PA system cranking out banger after banger. “It’s always special to come into a stadium where the fans are already there … these are the stadiums you want to play in … though I’m not playing it’s still nice to be part of it!”
Of the spectacular firework show put on by fans outside Liverpool’s digs last night: “Maybe I was in the back of the hotel but I didn’t hear it … or I slept really well!”
Then onto his team selection: “Jeremie [Frimpong] is not playing as a full-back, he is playing on the right wing … we have many games to play in a few days … there is another big game coming up [in the Premier League at Chelsea] … in many of our games, players have impacted the games coming off the bench … Mo scored three coming off the bench against Rangers … and I know who was the manager of Rangers back then, my current assistant Gio [van Bronckhorst] … so I know about this already!”
As for his side’s defensive issues: “Most of the reasons we conceded chances were only partly to do with our defence … it’s not picking up second balls … conceding chances from set pieces … losing balls in positions when you shouldn’t lose it … it’s just as much the midfield and the front three … not aggressive in second balls, duels, set-pieces.”
Slot also makes a long defence of his team’s current struggle with consistency of form, pointing out the big number of new signings who need to adapt, the players he has lost, and the amount of pre-season training missed by the likes of Alexander Isak, Alexis Mac Allister and Conor Bradley, among others. He caveats all of that by pointing out that Liverpool have so far lost only one game.
Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk – who scored a pearler for the club in that aforementioned 3-2 win in 2006 – talks to Amazon Prime. First up, with Liverpool in town, he’s asked about a man with a foot in both camps, Graeme Souness, who you may remember doing this after the 1996 Turkish Cup final, which had been played on Gala’s Istanbul rival Fenerbahçe’s turf …
“He’s a legend … it was a golden goal in extra time … he did an amazing thing with the flag … it was very dangerous … he is one of the most important coaches in Galatastaray history … I like him very much as a coach and a person!”
Then on Buruk’s famous goal against Liverpool …
“I scored an amazing goal … by chance I shot outside the box from a corner kick … always Galatasaray has good results against Liverpool and I hope they will today again.”
And finally tonight’s team, led up front by Victor Osimhen. “First time after his injury, he played ten minutes of the Turkish league game … today he will start … he is very important for us … also Mauro Icardi is very important for us … I have two big strikers but very different types … I will start with Osimhen but continue with Mauro.”
The teams
Galatasaray: Cakir, Singo, Sanchez, Bardakci, Jakobs, Lemina, Torreira, Akgun, Gundogan, Yilmaz, Osimhen.
Subs: Guvenc, Baltaci, Sallai, Gabriel Sara, Icardi, Sane, Elmali, Kutlu, Kutucu, Ayhan, Demir, Unyay.
Liverpool: Alisson, Frimpong, Konate, van Dijk, Kerkez, Gravenberch, Jones, Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Gakpo, Ekitike.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Gomez, Endo, Isak, Mac Allister, Salah, Bradley, Robertson, Ngumoha.
Referee: Clement Turpin (Bourgogne).
Team news: Salah and Isak start on the bench
Liverpool make four changes to the XI that started (very poorly, it has to be said) the game at Palace last Saturday. Jeremie Frimpong comes in for Conor Bradley at right-back, Curtis Jones replaces Alexis Mac Allister in midfield, and Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak make way for Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike up front. All the players stepping aside are named as subs.
For the hosts, Victor Osimhen starts for the first time since returning from injury last weekend. Mauro Icardi is on the bench, alongside former Manchester City star Leroy Sané. Another former City favourite, İlkay Gündoğan, starts, as does erstwhile Southampton, Fulham and Wolves midfielder Mario Lemina, one-time Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira, and ex-Spurs defender Davinson Sánchez.
Galatasaray lost their opening Champions League fixture 5-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt; Liverpool won theirs 3-2 at home to Atletico Madrid. On the other hand, Cimbom have won all seven of their Turkish Super Lig fixtures so far, while Liverpool have just lost their first Premier League game of the season, snapping a run of five wins, at Crystal Palace. And then Galatasaray have lost only three of their last 18 home European games, winning ten and drawing five, while Liverpool have won 13 of their last 14 Champions League group/league matches. So depending on which way you turn, there’s a stat that’ll make a good case for either team winning tonight. Something’s got to give. Draw?
Preamble
The last time Liverpool played Galatasaray away, in the Champions League group stage in December 2006, they sent out a team that featured Gabriel Paletta, Danny Guthrie and Lee Peltier. They lost 3-2, Robbie Fowler with both of their consolations. To be fair, it was a dead rubber, with Rafael Benitez’s team having already won their group, the Turkish side already knocked out, and Liverpool went on to reach the final. But that did happen.
Liverpool’s only other game away at Galatasaray was also in the Champions League, in February 2002. They drew that one 1-1, Jari Litmanen setting up Emile Heskey, part of a campaign that looked highly promising until Gerard Houllier inexplicably took off Didi Hamann in the quarter-finals against Bayer Leverkusen … but that’s a topic for another day. Anyway, it all means Liverpool are still searching for their first away victory over Gala. Will that quest end tonight? We find out from 8pm UK time onwards. It’s on!
