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Galatasaray will take a 1-0 advantage into their UEFA Champions League last-16 second leg against Liverpool on Tuesday, with the Turkish side needing only a draw at Anfield to move through to the quarterfinals.
The match will kick off at 11 p.m. Türkiye time at Anfield in Liverpool, with Polish referee Szymon Marciniak set to officiate. In Türkiye, the game will be broadcast on TRT 1 and the Tabii platform.
After beating Liverpool 1-0 in the first leg, Galatasaray now stand one result away from reaching the last eight of Europe’s top club competition for the seventh time. A draw would be enough to send the Istanbul side through. A one-goal defeat would take the tie to extra time, while a loss by two or more goals would end their European campaign.
This will be the third meeting between the two clubs this season. Galatasaray had already beaten Liverpool 1-0 during the league phase before repeating the same scoreline in the first leg of the round of 16.
That has left the Turkish champions with a narrow but valuable cushion ahead of one of their biggest away nights of the season. Liverpool, meanwhile, will try to turn the tie around at home after finishing third in the 36-team league phase with six wins and two defeats from eight matches, enough to go straight through to the last 16.
Galatasaray reached this stage after coming through the play-off round against Juventus. They won the first match 5-2 in Istanbul and then lost 3-2 after extra time away, which still proved enough to send them on.
Galatasaray will be without Colombian center-back Davinson Sanchez, who is suspended after picking up his third yellow card of the European campaign in the first match against Liverpool.
Sanchez had featured in all 11 of Galatasaray’s Champions League matches this season, so his absence takes away one of the side’s most consistent defensive options. Aside from that suspension, Galatasaray has no fresh injury concerns. Arda Unyay, Renato Nhaga, and Can Armando Guner are also unavailable because they were not included in the club’s UEFA squad list.
Head coach Okan Buruk will go into the match alongside six players who are one booking away from a suspension in the first leg of a possible quarterfinal. Goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir, defenders Ismail Jakobs, Abdulkerim Bardakci, and Roland Sallai, as well as attackers Noa Lang and Victor Osimhen, are all on that line.
The match could also carry extra significance for Victor Osimhen. The Nigerian forward has scored seven goals for Galatasaray in this season’s Champions League and is trying to draw level with Burak Yilmaz, who holds the record for the most goals scored by a player for a Turkish club in a single Champions League season with eight in 2012-13.
For the club as a whole, the night offers another chance to add to a long European record. Galatasaray are preparing for their 340th match in European competition and their 169th in the European Cup and Champions League combined. Across all European tournaments, they have recorded 121 wins in 339 matches.
They are also trying to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the seventh time, having previously made the last eight in 1962-63, 1969-70, 1988-89, 1993-94, 2000-01, and 2012-13.
Although Liverpool remains the stronger side on paper, Galatasaray go into the second leg having avoided defeat in 14 of their last 21 European matches across the Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
Galatasaray has already beaten Liverpool twice this season, and one more disciplined result would put them back among the final eight teams in Europe.
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