Arne Slot claimed Liverpool were ‘outsmarted’ by Galatasaray as they fell to defeat in Istanbul on a night where Alisson and Hugo Ekitike both limped off injured.
Victor Osimhen scored a 16th-minute penalty for the Turkish side who ‘fought with all they had’ from there onwards, according to Reds boss Slot.
It means Liverpool have lost back-to-back games after Saturday’s defeat to Crystal Palace and go to Chelsea this weekend almost certainly without their No 1 goalkeeper Alisson.
Slot said: ‘(Galatasaray winger Baris Yilmaz) felt a little flick in his face, he fell down, we are sometimes a bit outsmarted in situations like this. I cannot blame Dom (Szoboszlai, who gave away the penalty) for a situation like this.
‘But they have turned a 20 per cent penalty into a 100 per cent penalty and that is something that is very smart of them.
‘It is disappointing because you play football to win a game, that is what we didn’t do. For me it was a different loss to the one we had against Palace because there was a lot more to like, especially in the first half.
Arne Slot has revealed how Liverpool were ‘outsmarted’ by Galatasaray on Tuesday night
The Reds fell to back-to-back defeats with a sobering loss in Turkey in the Champions League
‘In the second half it became harder and harder for us to create because first of all they were fighting with all they had and you have to give credit to them, second the ball was hardly in play in the second half.’
Liverpool’s top scorer this season, Ekitike, will undergo scans upon his return to Merseyside, as will Alisson who is ‘99.9 per cent’ out of the champions’ trip to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, according to Slot.
They are more hopeful on Ekitike. He said: ‘When Ali sprinted back, he felt something. I cannot tell you because I am not a physician but normally when a player sprints back and feels something and goes to the floor and doesn’t come back to the pitch (it is not good).
‘Nine times out of 10 I fear the worst and with the worst I mean he cannot continue and that is what happened with Alisson. He will not be able to play Saturday, that is 99.9 per cent.’
Reds boss Slot said he is 99.9 per cent confident Alisson Becker will not play against Chelsea
Slot also defended his decision to rest star man Mohamed Salah, who started a Premier League or Champions League game from the bench for the first time since April 2024, bar a dead-rubber when Liverpool had already won the league phase last year.
‘This is a decision we have made together, I completely believe in this because if you have 25 players it is very hard to manage your squad but as a result of that and with many not having the pre-season they should have, that means I cannot play them all the time.’
Former Manchester City captain Ilkay Gundogan, who excelled in Galatasaray’s midfield, said: ‘It feels very special, especially coming from a bad defeat in our first game of our Champions League campaign.
‘Playing against an amazing Liverpool team, we knew it was going to be very tough and that we needed a special team performance, and convert the chances that we got. That’s exactly what we did.’
