Forget Szoboszlai & Salah: Liverpool maestro quietly dominated Galatasaray – and no one is talking about it

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Dominik Szoboszlai hugs Mo Salah from behind.
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Florian Wirtz has perhaps flown under the radar as far as praise is concerned for Liverpool’s dominant display against Galatasaray.

The Merseysiders secured passage through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 4-0 win at Anfield (4-1 win on aggregate).


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Goals from Dominik Szoboszlai, Hugo Ekitike, Ryan Gravenberch and Mo Salah took the tie out of the visitors’ hands in what was one of the Reds’ best displays this season.

Florian Wirtz deserves credit for his display vs Galatasaray

The plaudits will rightly go to Dominik Szoboszlai for kick-starting Liverpool’s phenomenal outing against Galatasaray with a well-worked corner routine goal.

However, Wirtz quietly worked his way towards the top of the stat table throughout, ranking second behind his Hungarian teammate (at the time of writing) with a score of 8.7/10, according to Fotmob.

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The former Bayer Leverkusen star picked up an assist for Salah’s goal. Whilst our No.11 deserves a good chunk of the credit thanks to a superb curling strike, it has to be acknowledged that our creative lynchpin did create space for Salah with a lovely 1-2 around the edge of the 18-yard box.

What do the stats say about Wirtz’s performance for Liverpool?

Wirtz had particularly come alive in the second half of Liverpool’s 2025/26 season, however, recent poor team performances have perhaps stifled his ability to express himself fully on the pitch.

Perhaps this latest outing for the Reds is a good indication of what we can expect for the remainder of the campaign.

Florian Wirtz’s stats vs Galatasaray
1 assist
7 chances created
1 big chance created
1 big chance missed
10 touches in opposition box
4/5 successful dribbles
8 passes into final third
6/10 ground duels won

* Florian Wirtz’s stats in the Champions League tie (Fotmob)

Quietly influencing proceedings, quietly impacting the game. This is the Florian we love to see at Anfield.

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6 Comments

  1. Kerkez has improved alot. Gakpo must not be playing on the left with him though.

  2. You can only beat what’s in front of you but the truth here is we beat the worst team in the last 16. Galatasaray didn’t have one meaningful attempt on goal, they’ve only won one game in the champions league knockout round in 37 years. While everyone is jumping for joy at going through to the quarter finals you should remind yourself at what happened last season when we played PSG.

    Let’s see if slot has learned anything from playing them last season. PSG are a million times better than galatasaray. Try to go toe to toe with these and there’s only one outcome. Wirtz for me was Average, as usual szoboszlai was the best player on the pitch.
    To get past PSG Liverpool need to improve drastically.
    Nothing to brag about beating a poor team in galatasaray.

  3. Agree, after the second goal went in that was the poorest performance by any visiting side that I’ve seen all season. Great Liverpool performance second half but let’s not get carried away.

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