Fenerbahçe 3-2 Liverpool: result and report

The Pundit picked Liverpool (46%): wrong

Report

Fenerbahçe beat Liverpool 3-2 despite falling behind twice. Liverpool had been expected to win, but they never held a lead for longer than four minutes.

Trey Nyoni put Liverpool ahead on 25 minutes, though Mason Greenwood equalised on 29. The second half followed the same pattern. Alexander Isak scored from Cody Gakpo's assist on 69 minutes, yet Archie Brown levelled four minutes later. Brown then set up Vedat Muriqi, on as a substitute, for the winner on 79 minutes, and Liverpool could not respond.

Brown is the story of the night because he scored one and made the other inside six minutes. Muriqi's goal also meant the change from the bench paid off when the game was there to be won.

The bigger point is that Liverpool's territorial dominance did not turn into better chances. They had 68% of the ball, 22 shots to 17 and 18 key passes to 11. Despite that, the chances that mattered were shared evenly: six shots on target each and four big chances each. Liverpool missed three of theirs, while Fenerbahçe missed two.

Fenerbahçe also came close to more. They hit the woodwork once, and Ederson made four saves to Alisson's three, so the home side's goal was tested as often as Liverpool's.

The counter-signal is xG. Liverpool finished on 2.13 to Fenerbahçe's 1.52, which suggests they built slightly more total chance value and can feel the defeat was harsh. The pressure pattern points the same way. Liverpool sustained much heavier pressure on average, though Fenerbahçe produced the sharpest single spell of the match. That reads like a home side that spent long periods without the ball but hurt Liverpool when it mattered.