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Mohamed Salah covered his ears against the thunderous Galatasaray atmosphere as Liverpool endured a second consecutive defeat. The Reds fell to a 1-0 loss against the Turkish giants in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
This followed a tight 2-1 reverse against Crystal Palace at the weekend, where Eddie Nketiah netted the decisive goal for the Eagles deep into added time. On Tuesday, however, Victor Osimhen's first-half penalty proved decisive for the home side.
Throughout the match, Liverpool's squad encountered a hostile reception from the local fans. And it appears that Salah - who was surprisingly named among the substitutes - needed to shield his ears from the thunderous crowd. It comes after Ilkay Gundogan revealed what one Liverpool player told him during the game.
After completing his warm-up, the Egyptian was spotted heading back to his spot with his hands pressed against his ears, which demonstrates the intimidating atmosphere Liverpool were forced to endure.
Salah was eventually introduced as a second-half substitute, though he was unable to salvage the result.
Justifying his choice to bench Salah initially, Liverpool boss Arne Slot explained: "We have many games to play in the coming days, we have a big game coming up, we have to utilise our squad, and utilising doesn't always mean from the start.
"Players can come in as well. In many of our games, players have impacted the game coming off the bench.
"And indeed they were talking about the last time Mo scored three coming off the bench against Rangers. And I know who the manager of Rangers was. That is my current assistant, Gio [van Bronckhorst]. So they've spoken about this already."
Meanwhile, Liverpool's Curtis Jones acknowledged the challenging atmosphere that contributed to a difficult night in Turkey. He said: "It's always hard when you lose games, of course it is, but I thought the lads played well, there were positives from the whole of the game.
"In the second half they played in a low block and they are a physical team as well. The fans were behind them for the whole night and it was a hard game but we'll go again.
"I got kicked everywhere but again, I say it all the time, this is the Champions League and it is always going to be a hard game. It's their biggest game of the year I'd say and I think it showed with the fans and how the players played as well.
"If you look at their first game, they get beat [5-1 by Eintracht Frankfurt] and if you look at it tonight, it didn't even look like we could have scored. That is just how the game went."
Liverpool will be aiming to recover this weekend when Slot's squad journey to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea. Salah will undoubtedly be eager to score against his former club, having found the back of the net three times in his first nine appearances this season.
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