The good news for Liverpool is that the situation is salvageable, when it really might not have been. The bad news is that they were distinctly second best for the first three quarters of the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Nobody who saw their second half collapse away to Juventus in the play-off round could be confident Galatasaray are a team capable of squeezing the life out of the second leg. There is a nervousness about them at the back, a persistent sense of misfortune about to strike, but going forward they are breezy, quick and fun. Their only regret will be that, having taken an early lead through the former Wolves midfielder Mario Lemina, they did not add a second goal to give them more to defend at Anfield.
Arne Slot had acknowledged that his side struggle to create chances from open play, but this really was an indictment of long-throw Britain, set-plays seeming their only route to goal – although it should be a matter of concern to all English sides just how often the Spanish referee saw an offence amid what Premier League viewers have come to regard as the routine buffeting of a crowded six-yard box.
And it will be a different game at Anfield. Other crowds whistle but none do so with quite the unanimity, ferocity or pitch of the Galatasaray’ crowd, which is all the more impressive when you consider the breathtaking nature of the walk up the hill to the Ali Sami Yen, which stands above Vadistanbul like a great citadel, protected on all sides by lanes and lanes of intersecting motorway. “The world met hell here, welcome to hell,” said one banner while another, more specifically tailored to the opposition, read, “You are alone in Sami Yen hell.” If hell is other people whistling, this really is the inferno.
