Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Galatasaray 1 Liverpool 0 in the 2025-2026 Champions League last 16 in Istanbul…
THAT corner may never be turned. Nothing is terminal tonight – far from it. You could have offered me a goal defeat before a ball was kicked tonight and I would have genuinely contemplated taking it. Probably erred on the side of not.
But that corner will not be turned this season. Liverpool can keep moving forward in all cup competitions, keep putting league points on the board uncertainly. Could even lift actual silverware. They will not turn the corner.
Today is a game which could have finished almost any score. 4-1, 1-3, 2-2, 3-2. All were possible in terms of what unfolded before our eyes. Both sides have goals ruled out in a manner which would be described as harsh but I’d rather both were than not spiritually.
Even then though neither set of incidents ensures you have any belief in either side, in either set of players. The energy of the game is closer to the last 16 of the FA Cup than it is to the last 16 of the Champions League.
The Liverpool manager sets his team out early to go and grab the game. The press is exceptional and had they scored in the first six minutes the manager would deserve enormous credit for the way Liverpool had been sent out – bold as brass and with a plan.
The issue is he also has responsibility for all the other bits. He has responsibility for Alexis Mac Allister on Victor Osimhen and Milos Kerkez dropping to the post. But more than that, he has responsibility for Liverpool looking like they can’t embrace the madness but can’t impose control. There is an axis and Liverpool dip at both ends massively in the first-half.
Half-time hits and Liverpool have both got away with it and had hard lines and made everything feel so difficult, including being better. Liverpool have been second best at being best.
This is the season. More questions than answers and those questions feeling like new riddles. They will not turn the corner. They just won’t.
The second-half comes and goes and is less incident packed than the first but ultimately goalless. That this midfield gets the duration beggars belief. They looked a mess on twenty minutes. But there they are, the three of them, plugging away, on 90.
I’m sympathetic to Liverpool’s defenders’ plight across the game. Lang has spent an age about to break through. Yilmaz uses his body well to do your head in. And Osimhen is just as good as anybody else in the world for me. As good as anyone we can pick, Bayern Munich can pick, Real Madrid can pick, Manchester City can pick.
Those sides aren’t chosen by accident here. He is incredible because you will never ever keep him out of the action. Liverpool are defending against one of the best players in the world. I love him.
Liverpool are simply not midfielding against players of the same class. The manager goes with his league-winning midfield and they are so short in every type of play. They never assert themselves.
The one who looks the poorest is Alexis Mac Allister, not for the first time this season. Not for the tenth time. Mac Allister hates it when a game breaks apart and there is a ton of space to cover which is a real problem today because that happens around the fifth minute and never ever fixes itself. It is, in fact, Galatasaray’s whole gameplan.
And Liverpool 25/26 have rarely seen an opposition gameplan they aren’t happy to go along with, at least for a while. Liverpool’s midfield keeps being obliging and there is no desire to do anything about it from the bench.
We’ve hit the point where it is beyond valid to ask Curtis Jones based questions. Jones isn’t a perfect footballer but had just played well across three halves at Molyneux.
The manager’s commitment to Mac Allister early in the season cost Liverpool points and momentum and while I think Anfield will emphatically have its say next week, it would be horrendous if Liverpool lost their European season through the same commitment. It’d be the sort of decision that would make you wonder about who should be making decisions.
For the manager – Cody Gakpo comes on and looks good. Very good in fact. Jeremie Frimpong comes on for Mo Salah with the big call but the issue is that Joe Gomez’s legs are about to fall off and there is no move. Robertson for Kerkez was wholly sensible and 8 mad minutes aside in the second-half, Liverpool do find a modicum of sense within the game. Something to anchor the ship to.
Liverpool should be fine as long as we all go to Anfield fancying it. Liverpool should be fine as long as they can resolve their relationship with control. Be fine if they take their first four chances to create chances, and if today was Florian Wirtz getting one out of his system.
Beyond that? Best not to think beyond that. Because being shitly enigmatic could well be Liverpool’s season, at least until the clocks, at least until Easter Sunday. The job for now is keep everything alive until we get beyond the clocks and Easter Sunday and today becomes the tiniest step forward in that direction.
But bloody hell, Liverpool. Not good enough. Fix it. You get to do so next Wednesday. See you all then. And into these. We can beat them. We should beat them. They are worthy of both respect and of defeat and they were worthy of both tonight and this is why Liverpool yet again did your head in.
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