Andoni Iraola arrived in Istanbul hoping to plug Liverpool’s flaws in attack only for holes to appear at the opposite end of the pitch. Fenerbahce capitalised on a late defensive collapse to launch Dirk Kuyt’s interim spell with a tumultuous victory and end Liverpool’s 100% run in the Champions League.
Liverpool’s second successive defeat will infuriate Iraola as much as the manner of Sunday’s loss to Arsenal. It was careless and easily avoidable. The visitors led twice, through Trey Nyoni’s first senior goal and a header from substitute Alexander Isak, only for Fenerbahce to level swiftly on both occasions and snatch a late winner when Vedat Muriqi punished weak defending from several in red. Bradley Barcola’s anonymous display up front was an added headache for the Liverpool head coach.
Iraola’s team started strongly against an ageing home side and created two good openings in the first five minutes. Victor Muñoz and Barcola both fluffed shots from an inviting Kostas Tsimikas cross, while Jérémy Jacquet headed wide from the left back’s corner. Tsimikas’s deliveries were his strong suit. Defensively, he produced another uncertain display.
There was a Premier League feel to the contest given the number of recognisable faces in the Fenerbahce ranks. Kuyt’s starting XI boasted almost as much Premier League experience as Liverpool’s with Romelu Lukaku, Ederson, N’Golo Kanté, Nélson Semedo, Matteo Guendouzi and Mason Greenwood amassing 1086 appearances between them. The total of the visitors’s starting lineup came to 1241.
As expected, the Fenerbahce fans tested the ear-drums with their incessant whistling whenever Liverpool took possession. They were a test for structural engineers too with their constant bouncing in the upper tier of the home end. Liverpool sought to dilute the atmosphere by controlling possession in the early stages. Rio Ngumoha was prominent and Kanté should have been booked for halting one promising run by leaping on the teenager’s back. The referee, Clément Turpin, was in a lenient mood with both sides.
Fenerbahce had struggled to hold up play in the Liverpool half or create a chance of note when Archie Brown exposed the visiting defence with a superb ball from left back. The pass sailed over Tsimikas and was controlled well by Greenwood, before he was pushed over by the Liverpool defender. Neither Turpin nor the video assistant referee deemed it a penalty kick.
The decibel levels cranked up several notches as Fenerbahce’s penalty appeals were waved away. And even higher when Liverpool took the lead just seconds later. Ngumoha was heavily, inevitably involved with a darting run and shot that was charged down into the path of Szoboszlai. Brown, under pressure from Virgil van Dijk, headed the midfielder’s cross clear but only as far as Nyoni on the edge of the penalty area. The young midfielder swept a low volley beyond Ederson with the aid of a slight deflection off Kojo Peprah Oppong. It was a memorable milestone in the continued rise of Nyoni; the first goal of his career at the highest level.
It was also the cue for Fenerbahce to rouse themselves. The hosts almost levelled straight from the restart when Kanté released Brown on the left and his low centre was turned against Alisson’s crossbar by Irfan Can Kahveci, who may have been ruled offside. They did not have to wait much longer for the equaliser. After Dominik Szoboszlai was penalised for a foul on Kanté 25 yards out, Greenwood’s resulting free-kick took a huge deflection off Jacquet’s stomach and sailed past the wrongfooted Alisson. The Liverpool keeper did not hide his anger at Jacquet turning away from the free-kick and leaving a costly hole in the wall.
Fenerbahce had several chances to take the lead as they finished the first half in the ascendancy but Greenwood and Kanté miscued before the former drew a fine save from Alisson with an angled drive.
The second half mirrored the first with Liverpool in almost complete control until scoring and provoking a reaction from the Turkish side. Substitutes Cody Gakpo and Isak had only been on the pitch three minutes when they combined to restore the visitors’ advantage, the Swedish striker heading past Ederson at close range from Gakpo’s floated left-wing cross.
But Fenerbahce struck back quickly for a second time when Kanté swept in a cross after a corner and Gakpo, attempting to head clear, succeeded only in flicking the ball away from Alisson’s grasp. His intervention gave Brown a simple tap-in at the back post. Worse was to follow for Liverpool when Birmingham-born Brown looped a cross into the heart of Liverpool’s box. Vedat Muriqi, a second-half replacement for Lukaku, managed to hold off three Liverpool players – Jacquet, Alexis Mac Allister and Nyoni – and plant a header into the bottom corner.
