No panic but Liverpool have to improve, says Van Dijk after Galatasaray loss

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk called for improvement and an end to silly errors after his side went down 1-0 at Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday and suffered the loss of goalkeeper Alisson to injury.

The defeat was Liverpool’s second in a row after the Premier League leaders lost their 100% record at Crystal Palace last Saturday.

“I hate losing. There shouldn’t be panic, but there should be definitely improvement needed,” the Dutch centre back said on Amazon Prime.

“I think it was a big step up in terms of the willingness, the hard work that we put in from the weekend, but that was not really too difficult because the weekend was just bad.

“We have to convert chances, don’t give a penalty away today and don’t make stupid mistakes at times. It’s far too easy to say these things than to actually make it happen but it’s a process and we have to keep going.

“Keep working, stick together and onto the next one. That’s the only thing we can focus on.”

Liverpool lost out to an early penalty, slotted home by Victor Osimhen, in a game played in an intimidating cauldron of a stadium after fireworks had been let off outside the team hotel overnight.

Manager Arne Slot said he was disappointed but the performance was still a lot better than last Saturday and it all came down to fine margins, with the team not so far off last season’s level.

“We’ve lost now twice in a row, this is something with the schedule coming as well. Galatasaray away is not an easy game, the same like Palace, and now we play Chelsea away so difficult games,” he explained.

“I saw a lot of things. In the first half, the way we played, the way we controlled the game, the amount of times we got our attackers in promising positions.

“In the second half, that was much less. But I don’t think in the second half there was a lot of playing time. Their striker was four or five times on the floor, substitutions, injuries.”

Alisson’s loss, with the goalkeeper ruled out of Saturday’s game at Chelsea, is a big one and Liverpool also had Hugo Ekitike go off injured.

With record signing Alexander Isak still not up to match fitness but coming on as a second-half substitute along with Mohamed Salah and some new players yet to gel Liverpool can ill afford to lose a scoring talent like Ekitike.

Salah’s form is also a concern, with the Egyptian last starting a Champions League game on the bench three years ago and making little impact when he came on.

Masked Nigerian Osimhen blasted the ball past a diving Alisson when he stepped up in the 16th minute after Baris Alper Yilmaz went down on being swiped in the face by Dominik Szoboszlai.

Ekitike, in the starting lineup on his return from a domestic suspension, went off injured in the 68th on a bruising night for the visitors who had their chances but looked alarmingly vulnerable in defence.

Also on Tuesday night, Jose Mourinho suffered a disappointing return to Stamford Bridge, a first-half own goal gifting Chelsea a 1-0 win over his new Benfica side.

Chelsea’s Pedro Neto looped the ball to Alejandro Garnacho at the far post in the 18th minute and the Argentine stretched to turn it across the face of goal where the unfortunate Richard Rios could only poke it in his own net.

Chelsea finished the game with 10 men after substitute Joao Pedro was sent off deep into added time for two yellow cards but it was a first win in this season’s competition, albeit a scrappy one, for Enzo Maresca’s team who lost their first Champions League outing in more than two years to Bayern Munich earlier this month.

Mourinho, who won three league titles in two spells with Chelsea, took charge of Benfica less than two weeks ago.

Tottenham Hotspur needed an 89th-minute own goal to salvage a point at Bodo/Glimt as they battled back from two goals down to draw 2-2 in the first Champions League game ever played inside the Arctic Circle.

The Norwegians, who lost to Spurs in the Europa League semifinals last season, had a first-half penalty skied over the bar by Kasper Hogh but Hauge made no mistake after the break as he curled home a superb shot in the 53rd minute.

Tottenham were soon two down has Hauge struck again, this time with a left-footed effort in the 66th.

Captain Micky van de Ven pulled a goal back with a header two minutes later but Spurs continued to struggle and the hosts looked to be heading for a famous victory until goalkeeper Nikita Haikin blocked a shot that bounced off substitute Jostein Gundersen and into the net for a late equaliser.

Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid cruised to a 5-0 victory over Champions League debutants Kairat Almaty.

Fresh from a 5-2 loss to Atletico Madrid in LaLiga, Xabi Alonso’s side responded emphatically in Kazakhstan, with Mbappé leading the charge.

The French forward opened the scoring in the 25th minute from the penalty spot and doubled their lead from a quick counter early in the second half.

Mbappé completed his hat-trick in the 73rd minute with a stunning effort from the edge of the box, with Eduardo Camavinga heading in Real’s fourth. Brahim Diaz added a fifth in stoppage time.