Liverpool given instant penalty verdict after Dominik Szoboszlai decision against Galatasaray

Liverpool could have no complaints about conceding an early penalty in their Champions League clash with Galatasaray, according to both Alan Shearer and Mark Clattenburg. The Reds fell behind early on in Istanbul after Victor Osimhen netted a 16th-minute spot-kick.

The penalty was awarded by referee Clement Turpin after makeshift right-back Dominik Szoboszlai caught Baris Alper Yılmaz in the face with his trailing arm when trying to challenge the Turkey international in the box.

Osimhen stepped up to score the penalty to give his side the lead, and both Premier League legend Shearer and former official Clattenburg were in agreement that Turpin had made the right decision.

“It’s just that trailing arm, isn’t it?” Shearer said on co-commentary duties for Amazon Prime. “It catches him, just invites him to go down. It catches him and the referee has got a really, really good view of it.”

Clattenburg agreed, saying: “I agree with Alan. As he goes in to challenge him, his trailing arm catches him in the face and it was a simple decision from a well-positioned referee.”

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Osimhen’s penalty came moments after Hugo Ekitike had missed a chance when one-on-one for Liverpool to open the scoring, with Cody Gakpo then seeing his rebound cleared off the line.

Arne Slot had prompted headlines ahead of kick-off when he made the surprise decision to bench Mohamed Salah against the Turks, with Jeremie Frimpong instead starting at right-wing with Szoboszlai stationed at right-back as a result.

"Jeremie is not playing as a right full-back, he is playing on the right-wing,” Slot confirmed ahead of kick-off. “We have many games to play. In a few days there is another big game coming up.

“We have to utilise our squad. Utilising doesn’t always mean from the start. Players can come in as well. Many of our games, players have impacted the game coming off from the bench.

"They were talking about the last time, Mo scored three coming off the bench against Rangers. And I know who the manager of Rangers was back then! That is my current assistant, Gio (Van Bronckhorst).

“But that is not the reason (why Salah is on the bench). It is example maybe of a luxury, of having other options.

"Upfront we go in and out with Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike. And in the midfield we’ve made some changes because Mac Allister had a very poor pre-season. Poor in terms of missing out on a lot of training time.

“If you then play every three days, you can’t expect from Alexander or Mac Allister to be available for 90 minutes every three days.

"Alexander Isak didn't train in pre-season. Mac Allister missed a lot of pre-season. Conor Bradley missed a lot of pre-season. Milos Kerkez is not used, at Bournemouth, to playing three times a week.

“These are all extra ingredients why we sometimes have to rotate a bit. And sometimes it's also because we think we have players who can play games like this."

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