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Liverpool boss Arne Slot was seemingly not too impressed with Victor Osimhen’s antics during his side’s defeat to Galatasaray on Tuesday.
The striker’s penalty was enough to secure the Turkish champions a 1-0 win in Istanbul, and provide the Reds with a setback in their hopes of reaching the Champions League knockout stages.
It proved to be a disappointing night for Liverpool, with its players again failing to live up to their expectations as they fell to back-to-back defeats following the weekend’s loss to Crystal Palace, and Slot has been handed more headaches after Alisson Becker and Hugo Ekitike were both forced off during the second half.
The Reds’ head coach will no doubt be concerned with the manner in which his side fell to a second defeat in just a matter of days, having looked unlikely to find a way back into the game following Osimhen’s first-half spot-kick.
Slot also didn’t seem all that enamoured with the way in which Galatasaray protected its lead.
The second half was littered with stoppages as the hosts took every chance to run down the clock, with Liverpool’s boss seen involved in an angry exchange with Osimhen at one point as the striker waited to make his way back onto the field.
Summing up his side’s display, Slot said: "Again, disappointed. For me, this was a different performance on and off the ball [than Crystal Palace]. First half we played quite well and had a big chance to go 1-0 up.
"It is difficult to compare this situation to before. We are sometimes a bit outsmarted in situations like this and I cannot blame Dominik Szoboszlai for the situation. They make a 20 per cent penalty a 100 per cent penalty, which is very smart from them.
"We are not so far [off the level shown last season]. This is sometimes what the schedule can bring, Galatasaray is not a simple game. We now play Chelsea away, a difficult game.
"The margins are small and they were last season. For the second time in a row we are on the wrong side.
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"I saw a lot of things in the first half, but the second half was much less. I don't think in the second half there was a lot of playing time, their striker was on the floor four or five times. It was difficult to get momentum in the game."
Liverpool.com says: Osimhen and his teammates certainly did all they could to waste as much time as possible, but you can't really blame them, given how big a result last night's win would have been for them.
Referee Clement Turpin should have been a lot stronger on their attempts to slow the game down. He didn't have a great game, and he seemed to be very quick to blow the final whistle at the end of the eight minutes of added time, despite there being even more stoppages during that period. Not that it would have helped Liverpool with the way the Reds were playing.
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