Anything BUT a miracle...

NO ISTANBUL FIGHTBACK THIS TIME AS RAGGED REDS PAY A SEVERE PENALTY

- By PAUL GORST at RAMS Park

As far as Champions League nights in Istanbul go for Liverpool, this won’t be retold with the same kind of relish as the 2005 classic.

This was a night where anything that could go wrong pretty much did for Arne Slot as the Reds lost their second successive game while also losing Alisson Becker and Hugo Ekitike to injuries on a miserable night at RAMS Park.

And having now suffered back-to-back defeats, the question is whether this is the start of an alarming slump in both form and results or whether it is a minor blip that is par for the course when a head coach is trying to bed in so many new signings?

The result and performance at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening will offer more evidence for either side of that debate but it's been a tough few days for Liverpool on the road.

If Saturday's loss to Crystal Palace was deserved, it could be argued that the Premier League champions were a little unfortunate to be on the wrong side of this 1-0 reverse in Turkey given both Alisson and replacement Giorgi Mamardashvili were largely untroubled.

But after going down to Victor Osimhen’s 16th-minute penalty, Liverpool rarely looked like having the guile or invention to carve open their hosts and get themselves back into the game and for a club who have spent so much money realigning things at the top end of the pitch, that must be a concern now.