DATE: Thursday 28 July 2011
KICK OFF: 19:00
VENUE: Turk Telekom Arena, Istanbul
COMPETITION: Friendly
REFEREE: Unknown
BROADCAST: LFC TV, 19:00
A youthful Liverpool side were well beaten on Thursday night away to Galatasaray in Istanbul.
Kenny Dalglish opted to leave out almost all senior players from the starting lineup, with only Andy Carroll likely to feature regularly out of those that started the match. It was a hugely experimentative formation, with Jack Robinson deployed in an advanced role on the left, and the forgotten Philipp Degen played on the opposite flank. Galatasaray, on the other hand, fielded a strong side, and perhaps as expected were the better team throughout.
The Turkish side dominated the opening exchanges and had a number of chances before finally taking the lead in just the eighth minute. Former Reds striker Milan Baros got on the end of a ball from Arda Turan, and hit the ball on the volley to give Galatasaray the lead.
Liverpool could simply not keep the ball in the first half, but started to look like getting back into the game towards the end of the first half. However, this encouraging period was short-lived as six minutes before the break, Baros struck again.
Galatasaray won a corner on the right which was swung in and the Czech got his head on it to double the home side's lead from close range.
Dirk Kuyt and Alberto Aquilani came on for the second half along with Brad Jones, and Liverpool gave a better account of themselves in the remaining 45 minutes. Carroll had a number of half chances, mostly via headers, but could not find the accuracy or power to seriously trouble the Galatasaray goalkeeper.
Five minutes from time, the game was wrapped up. After a comedy of errors in the Liverpool defence, substitute Johan Elmander got on the end of a cross to smash in on the volley from outside the box. The Swede's strike ensured that Liverpool's unwanted record of conceding three goals per game in pre-season continued.
The Reds are expected to start fielding the team that is likely to start the season in the remaining two pre-season fixtures, away to Valerenga on Monday night, and home to Valencia on the following Saturday.
LIVE SCOREBOARD
GALATASARAY - 3
Baros 8', 39'
Elmander 85'
LIVERPOOL - 0
TEAMS
GALATASARAY
Ercetin
Ujfalusi
Sarioglu
Zan
Cetin
Inan
Kazim-Richards
Melo
Turan
Baros
Balta
SUBS: Ceylan, Birinci, Gulselam, Yilmaz, Elmander, Akman, Kaya, Culio, Stancu, Kurtulus, Dilaver.
LIVERPOOL
Doni (Jones 46')
Flanagan
Kelly (Ayala 70')
Kyrgiakos
Insua
Poulsen (Coady 82')
Shelvey (Spearing 69')
Degen (Kuyt 46')
Cole
Robinson (Aquilani 46')
Carroll (Wisdom 82')
SUBS: Jones, Kuyt, Spearing, Coady, Ayala, Wisdom, Aquilani.
LAST MATCHES
GALATASARAY
Friday 20 May 2011
Spor Toto Super Lig
Galatasaray 2-0 Konyaspor
LIVERPOOL
Sunday 22 May 2011
Barclays Premier League
Aston Villa 1-0 Liverpool
HEAD TO HEAD
Tuesday 5 December 2006
UEFA Champions League Group C
Galatasaray 3-2 Liverpool
FT: GALATASARAY 3-0 LIVERPOOL
posted on 28/7/11
Joe Cole - The Dung Beatle
posted on 28/7/11
We'd be lucky to get 20 quid for that sorry bunch, never mind 20 million, ITNPFE.
Well atleast we have Hendo.
posted on 28/7/11
We'd never get 20m they have no value.
posted on 28/7/11
Give them away. Leave them in Turkey. Swap them for penny chews. Anything.
Well Kenny seems to want us to wait and see what our first team will be. April the 1st is long gone, so I'm assuming this is his sense of humour kicking in.
posted on 28/7/11
ffs. i wish we would just convincingly win a game to shut up the WUMs -.-
posted on 28/7/11
Oh well, at least it was nowhere near a full side, while Galatasaray's team was quite strong. Should be playing our full team for the last two games, I'd be more worried if this continued when they were playing.
posted on 28/7/11
Has anyone actually watched a rival team play pre-season? Its quite sad that these rival fans have tuned into LFCTV or searched through the internet for a stream.
Have you considered that some people might like the game of football enough to watch a rival team when their own team isn't playing?
posted on 28/7/11
atletico-stromsgodset (our record win against team) is still playing in that case!
posted on 28/7/11
Well i was well impressed....looked pretty good Galatasary to me!!!
At least we are consistent...3 goals shipped again.
posted on 28/7/11
Oh well, at least it was nowhere near a full side, while Galatasaray's team was quite strong.
====================
They don't have a huge choice like most premiership clubs, and any squad they put out will almost always consist of a large number of first-choice players. Liverpools (and others) squads are probably three times the size of theirs.