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Key events
13 mins: … from which he hits Victor Munoz, who was standing alongside the defensive wall.
12 mins: Ngumoha is brought down by Kante, not far outside the penalty area, and Szoboszlai will have a shot from the resulting free-kick.
9 mins: And barely a minute later Guendouzi gets lectured by the referee for having the cheek to question a free-kick decision, after Mac Allister went over in midfield (also not a free kick, mind).
7 mins: Nothing comes from the corner, and Munoz is sent running down the right for Liverpool. Guendouzi gets in front of him, and when Munoz briefly brushes a hand against him the Frenchman flings himself to the ground, and wins a free kick.
6 mins: Fenerbahce win an attacking throw-in, and out comes a towel so Brown can get a proper grip on it.
5 mins: And another one! From the corner Szoboszlai eventually sends in a good cross from the right, and Jacquet miscues a header from six yards! Goal kick.
4 mins: Chances! Tsimikas’s cross from the left bounces through to Munoz, who has an excellent shooting chance but his effort is mishit and therefore runs to Barcola, whose effort is even more miskicked, and the ball goes back to Munoz, who finally forces a save out of Ederson.
3 mins: They keep booing for another minute or so while Liverpool continue keeping that ball, but eventually Szoboszlai hits a pass out of play, and they stop for a bit.
2 mins: Whistles and boos as Liverpool play keep-ball for a bit.
1 min: Peeeeeep! Liverpool get the match under way.
Before kick-off, a minute’s silence in memory of Jesús de Miguel, the Tenerife striker who died after an on-pitch collision over the weekend.
The players are on the pitch! And while the tournament anthem rings out, the Fenerbahce midfielder Yuksek gives his mascot a fairly intense cheek massage.
The players are gathering in the tunnel, while outside rain continues to fall, and Gala’s Freed from Desire rings out.
Classic football image here.
Dirk Kuyt has also had a pre-match chat:
I’m feeling well, looking forward to the game. It’s a bit of English weather, but for football it’s amazing. I feel the atmosphere is going to be amazing, so let’s go for it. Of course when you work very intensively for four months together with the head coach and his staff it’s never easy when there are changes. You’re always looking for stability. The main thing is to be united, to stay working hard and to be tied together. Liverpool have some pretty good memories about Liverpool and if you believe in yourself and the magic is in the air you never know what you can do. The first thing is we need to show energy on the pitch, we have to play physical. The main thing is if we show the energy on the pitch the crowd will get behind us and they will lift us up.
Andoni Iraola has a pre-match chat about his team changes:
I think we’ve been doing it all season. If you play every three four days you need to refresh the legs. In defensive positions we don’t have so many options, but in attacking positions we can see other options. I think Bradley, even Victor, are wingers but have played sometimes up front and I think we should be mobile, able to attack spaces if they are there, have good combinations also outside. I think Bradley can do this job very well.
And on the atmosphere they’re set to face:
We’ve tried to do all the mentality stuff. You are playing something different when you are playing a Turkish team. I hope we can be at the level because the beginning of their last Champions League game they scored two goals straight away. It would be a very important win, because it would put us in a very good position for the second half of this league phase.
The Liverpool players have arrived at the catchily-named Şükrü Saracoğlu Spor Kompleksi, where it is apparently very wet. Şükrü Saracoğlu, since you ask, was Turkish prime minister between 1942 and 1946, and also president of Fenerbahce from 1934 to 1950.
The teams!
The teams have been named, and here they jolly well are! Five changes for Liverpool, with Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak among those dropping to the bench and Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas among those hopping into the first XI.
Fenerbahce: Ederson, Nelson Semedo, Skriniar, Oppong, Brown, Guendouzi, Kante, Yuksek, Greenwood, Lukaku, Kahveci. Subs: Tarik Cetin, Gunok, Akturkoglu, Demir, Muldur, Muriqi, Mercan, Elmaz, Dorgeles, Aydin, Mimovic.
Liverpool: Alisson, Gomez, Jacquet, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Mac Allister, Nyoni, Munoz, Szoboszlai, Ngumoha, Barcola. Subs: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Kerkez, Wirtz, Isak, Gakpo, Araujo, Chambers, McConnell, Danns, Koumas.
Referee: Clement Turpin (France).
Earlier today Liverpool’s Under-19s beat their Fenerbahce counterparts 5-3, with Will Wright scoring a hat-trick. They were 3-1 up after just 20 minutes, and 4-2 up after half an hour, while Fenerbahce finished with 10 men after Ali Demirbilek was sent off in stoppage time. Also on the scoresheet was Finn Inglethorpe, son of Liverpool’s long-time academy director, Alex.
Here’s Andy Hunter’s pre-match missive from Istanbul:
Andoni Iraola has said Liverpool must improve their attacking play but dismissed concerns over the contrast between his team’s output in the Premier League and Champions League.
Liverpool boast a 100% record in Europe this season and can take a significant step towards qualification for the knockout phase with victory away at Fenerbahce on Wednesday.
Iraola’s side failed to register a shot on target, according to Opta, during Sunday’s defeat by Arsenal, the first time Liverpool have drawn a blank in a Premier League home game since their records began in 2003-04. The Liverpool head coach believes the statistic did not reflect his team’s performance but admitted there is room for improvement.
Much more here:
Preamble
Yesterday afternoon former Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt told the media how excited he was to be facing his former team as Fenerbahce’s interim manager. “As soon as the draw was done, I was really excited because everyone knows how much Fenerbahce and Liverpool mean to me and, from that moment, you know it will be a special occasion,” he beamed. “Of course, tomorrow will be a very special occasion for me but at the stage we’re in, I’m not here for myself. I’m here for the club and that’s what is important, to show the fans who deserve much more, a reaction, positive energy and a good performance.”
Then, at 11.25pm local time last night, the Turkish side announced that former Newcastle midfielder Emre Belozoglu – veteran also of two spells at Fener as a player and one as interim manager in 2021 – was replacing Kuyt, and his special occasion was imperilled. In the cold light of a new day it looks like Emre won’t take over until after this game, at which point Kuyt will either return to the role of assistant he held under previous head coach Ismail Kartal, or leave the club.
Either way, this promises to be a raucous farewell/not farewell. Fenerbahce are having a stinker of a season, sixth in the Super Lig having lost their last two league games, most recently experiencing a Hallowe’en nightmare at home to Goztepe, but this gives them a probably welcome distraction. Let’s see what they do with it, shall we?
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