Lemina strikes early and Liverpool spend much of the night chasing
Liverpool left Istanbul with the tie still alive, but the bigger concern for Arne Slot will be how second best his team looked for most of the match. Galatasaray earned a 1-0 win in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 meeting, with Mario Lemina’s early goal rewarding a performance in which the Turkish side carried far more threat for long stretches.
For Liverpool, the scoreline could have been worse. That is the main positive. The visitors struggled again to create enough from open play and, aside from set pieces, rarely looked fully convincing in attack. Slot had already spoken before the game about his team’s issues in building chances from normal play, and this match offered another example of that weakness.
Galatasaray, by contrast, looked lively and dangerous going forward. Once they got ahead, the game moved into a pattern that suited them, with quick attacks down the wings and regular service into Victor Osimhen, who caused major problems throughout the night.
Set-piece weakness hurts Liverpool again in a hostile atmosphere
The decisive moment came from a corner. Gabriel Sara’s delivery found Osimhen at the far post, where he rose above Alexis Mac Allister and headed the ball back across goal for Lemina to finish. It was another costly set-piece concession for Liverpool and another frustrating reminder of a problem that has followed them this season.
Slot also pointed to the refereeing, feeling that too many challenges in the box were punished against his side while a shirt pull on Virgil van Dijk went unpunished in a later attacking situation. Even so, Liverpool’s manager also admitted his team can learn from the way Galatasaray attacked their chances with more urgency.
The atmosphere added to the challenge. Galatasaray’s crowd created an intense and relentless noise that Liverpool again found difficult to handle, especially after the home side settled into the game.
Mamardashvili keeps Liverpool close before Anfield decider
Liverpool were fortunate not to fall further behind. Giorgi Mamardashvili, deputising for the injured Alisson, made several important saves to keep the deficit at one goal. Osimhen also had the ball in the net again, only for VAR to rule it out after an offside was detected earlier in the move.
Liverpool thought they had found an equaliser of their own from a corner, but that effort was also disallowed after the ball appeared to strike Ibrahima Konaté’s arm in the scramble before crossing the line.
The visitors improved in the closing stages and created a few openings, but this was clearly Galatasaray’s night. Liverpool remain very much in the tie heading to Anfield, yet the performance left familiar doubts. One goal is not a huge gap, but Slot knows his side will have to be much sharper in the second leg.
