The actions of one Galatasaray player against Liverpool on Wednesday night had Mo Salah, Arne Slot and some of the Reds’ coaching staff highly amused.
The LFC head coach cut a visibly irate figure during the first half at Anfield as the game was interrupted on numerous occasions by delay tactics from a few of the away team’s players.
By the time the Premier League champions were cruising at 4-0 up on the night (and 4-1 on aggregate), those of a Merseyside persuasion could afford to view such stoppages in a more relaxed manner.
In the 71st minute, just as Salah had gotten in behind the Galatasaray defence and was marauding into space on the right flank, the referee blew for a free kick for an apparent foul on Ismail Jakobs.
Replays showed that, if there even had been any contact from the Egyptian winger, it was minimal and certainly didn’t warrant the Senegal left-back throwing himself to the ground theatrically.
TV cameras captured Liverpool’s number 11 – along with Slot and some of the Reds’ coaches – laughing at a combination of Jakobs’ melodramatics and the ref’s decision to award the visitors a free kick.
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If the tie were still in the balance at that point, you can be sure that the LFC players and coaching staff wouldn’t have seen the funny side of the 26-year-old’s histrionics.
Although Noa Lang sustained a genuinely painful thumb injury when colliding with perimeter advertising late on, the first half-hour in particular was littered with Galatasaray players blatantly trying to con the officials and disrupt any bit of momentum to the game.
Thankfully, unlike against Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday, Liverpool didn’t let up in their performance after taking a first-half lead through Dominik Szoboszlai, and the Turkish champions had no answer to the rampant Reds at Anfield.
The delay tactics of Okan Buruk’s side weren’t rewarded, and the visiting manager’s sour grapes over the refereeing felt a tad churlish when his team were indulding in some laughable play-acting throughout the course of the match. Ultimately, they got what they deserved.
You can view the reactions to Jakobs’ theatrics below, taken from TRT1’s match coverage and shared via @pittbrad1907 on X:
Jakobs’un temas yokken yere düşmesinden sonra Arne Slot’un, yedek kulübesinin ve pozisyonun içindeki Salah’ın gülüşüne bak.
Peki biz ne yapalım bir ömür bunlarla rakip oluyoruz. Siz ayda yılda bir rakip oldunuz, ona bile dayanamadınız. pic.twitter.com/yYBMQDSmtD
— Hakan Temouzi (@pittbrad1907) March 18, 2026
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