ARNE SLOT’s 100th Liverpool match ended in the pain of Champions League “Hell” on earth.
But at least the damage from a dreadful night was not fatal.
Blown off course by a hurricane of ceaseless sound from every corner of RAMS Park, Liverpool are lucky to be flying home today (they fly on Wednesday) with a chance of putting the record straight at Anfield next week.
Yet with Mo Salah anonymous once more before he was hooked before the hour mark and Ibrahima Konate an accident waiting to happen, Liverpool could have been down and out.
Mario Lemina’s seventh minute header saw the Istanbul amp go up to 11, with Slot’s men rocking at the back all evening and fortunate they were not more heavily punished.
Giorgi Mamardashvili made two huge first half saves before BOTH sides had goals disallowed in a frantic second half played out to that astonishing backdrop of constant bedlam.
Yet while redemption can come back on Merseyside Liverpool look nothing like potential champions of Europe.
Slot will know that, too while the Salah issue is one that will not go away, the Egyptian utterly unable to influence proceedings at all before his night was cut short.
Along with the now familiar banners, with the warning “The world met Hell here, welcome to Hell”, Slot had also highlighted the wall of sound he expected his men to encounter.
He was not wrong. From the start the joint was jumping – quite literally.
Cheltenham Festival: Get over £500 in free bets
It was relentless, incessant, ear-piercing – and initially seemed to induce the heebie-geebies in their OWN side, who were a mess under any sort of hustle.
Florian Wirtz, could, arguably should, have silenced the baying hordes inside two minutes, when Dominik Szoboszlai pressured Lucas Torreira into an error.
The German, operating on the left, had a gaping target with keeper Ugurcan Cakir out of position but dragged wastefully wide from 25 yards.
A miss punished as Liverpool’s season-long frailties at the back resurfaced.
Noa Lang ran at Joe Gomez – chosen on the right – to win a corner, which Gabriel Sara arrowed to the far post.
Masked marauder Victor Osimhen rose above three green shirts to nod back and there was Lemina, the former Fulham and Southampton midfielder, whose diving header from close range gave Mamardashvili no chance.
Osimhen was close to a second as he headed wide after getting in between Virgil van Dijk and Milos Kerkez before Wirtz squandered the chance to make amends, firing straight at Cakir when he was found by Alexis Mac Allister.
Defensively, though, now Liverpool were all over the place with Mamardashvili’s saves critical for the Reds.
The first saw the Georgian plunging to his left when Lang’s cross went all the way through and was destined for the bottom corner, before he dived the other way to foil ex-Spurs defender Davinson Sanchez when he was allowed ANOTHER free header.
And when Konate, shambolic all night, committed an air-shot which would have shamed a 36-handicapper, he was lucky that Osimhen could not keep his strike down with only Mamardashvili in front of him.
All of which was played out to that incredible noise, a non-stop assault on the ear-drums, with a frazzled Slot stalking his technical area as his side struggled to impose themselves on the game.
Van Dijk had a final word before leading his side out for the second half and Liverpool nearly levelled immediately.
First Cakir had to parry Szoboszlai’s searing strike before Mac Allister dragged a half-cleared throw-in wide from 14 yards.
But Liverpool remained deeply unconvincing at the back, Konate so uncomfortable and van Dijk booked for hauling down Baris Yilmaz.
Szoboszlai, again Liverpool’s best player, was narrowly wide with a low curler just before Salah and Kerkez were brought off, Jeremie Frimpong and Andy Robertson replacing them.
It was just the start of more defensive madness at both ends – all involving Konate.
The Frenchman’s hopeless back pass let in Lang, while his desperate block then teed up Osimhen with an empty net – only for the flag to have been raised against Yilmaz in the build-up as he bumped Konate.
Then when Szoboszlai’s corner caused chaos at the other end and the ball dribbled over the line, the goal was initially given.
Even when the first replay suggested the ball had accidentally struck Konate’s arm, van Dijk argued it had then hit him.
It had, but striking his left arm as he fell backwards, meaning VAR, eventually, ruled it out.
In between, Hugo Etitike gobbled up Ylimaz’ stray pass but tried to clip over Cakir when he could have passed into the net.
Galatasaray, with Osimhen prominent, kept looking for a second, as Liverpool remained horribly ill at ease.
Despite themselves, though, they were not breached again, with Cody Gakpo just wide at the death.
In their hands, still. But only just.
