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Galatasaray striker Victor Osimhen was full of praise for Liverpool after the Nigerian scored the only goal of the game in Turkey to hand his team the three points in the Champions League.
Osimhen netted after an extremely harsh penalty decision went against Dominik Szoboszlai in the first half, though just like against Crystal Palace, Liverpool couldn't blame the referee for its defeat. Arne Slot's side struggled to create anything and never really looked like getting back into the game.
"I’m extremely happy about the performance we put in against one of the greatest clubs in the world," Osimhen told CBS Sports. "For us, we never get carried away because this is a true test that Liverpool gave to us. I’m really happy about this win.
"It won’t take away that they are one of the best [teams] in the last decade. For us, it’s a really big motivation for us.
"They made us even better and we know we have a lot of things to work on. I’m really happy for this win and the team."
Osimhen could have increased Galatasaray's lead further when he went through one-on-one with Alisson Becker, but the Brazilian thwarted his effort, getting injured in the process.
Earlier, Osimhen had beaten Alisson from the penalty spot, and he explained how he kept his cool under pressure.
"You come face-to-face with one of the best goalkeepers in the world, Alisson," he said. "I have to be on high concentration for the place where I want to put the ball and I didn’t change it.
"For me, it’s a huge moment. I came against him when I played for my previous club and he heard my penalty so I needed to be highly concentrated to do better.
"We have quality in our team and we just need to be focused in many games in this competition. This is a huge step for us and we won’t be carried away because we beat Liverpool. It’s a big motivation."
Liverpool faces Eintracht Frankfurt next in the Champions League. The German side beat Galatasaray 5-1 on matchday one but then lost by the same scoreline against Atletico Madrid this week.
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"Disappointing, because you play football to win a game and that’s what we didn’t do," Arne Slot said in his post-match press conference.
"For me it was a different loss to the one we had against [Crystal] Palace because for me there was a lot more to like, especially in the first half, which was maybe different to the Palace game.
"And in the second half, it became harder and harder for us to create. First of all, because they were fighting with all they had so you have to give credit to them and second of all because we hardly played in the second half. By ‘hardly played’ I mean the ball was hardly in play."
Liverpool.com says: Galatasaray was thoroughly deserving of its win. But there are still six games to play for both teams: Liverpool should have enough to get through to the knockout phase. The performance was a worry, but Slot is confident there will be an improvement moving forward.
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