Galatasaray went crashing out of the Champions League at Liverpool on Wednesday night and head coach Okan Buruk has opened fire on referee Pawel Raczkowski after his performance
Galatasaray head coach Okan Buruk has claimed that stand-in referee Pawel Raczkowski was one of the worst officials he'd come across after his side were dumped out of the Champions League.
The Turkish outfit brought a 1-0 lead to Anfield for their second-leg clash but were well beaten, losing 4-0 on the night as Liverpool scored three times in the second-half. There were few contentious decisions that led directly to the hosts scoring their four goals.
Liverpool were awarded a first-half penalty, which was debatable, but Mohamed Salah would miss from 12 yards. Nevertheless Buruk still took huge issue with how the referee performed on Merseyside.
World Cup final referee Szymon Marciniak was expected to take charge, before he suffered an injury in the warm up. Fourth official Raczkowski was called up, but his performance was savaged by Burak.
He said: “Psychologically losing the game, the breaking point Osimhen’s injury, he was thinking of his arm too much. At the beginning, we were a pressing team in the first half and we had lower self confidence. The blocks seemed like a foul today. We were expecting one of the best referees in the world but [he was] one of the worst we have encountered."
Dominik Szoboszlai scored Liverpool's opening goal to ensure parity in the tie, which is how the game was left at half-time. Hugo Ekitike soon put the Reds in charge of the two-legged affair before Ryan Gravenberch made it 3-0. Salah would later atone for his miss with a stunning finish.
Arne Slot himself aired his own frustrations post game, but not with the referee. He bemoaned the antics of some of the Galatasaray players, claiming they were constantly finding themselves on the ground so as to break the game's rhythm. Slot was seen remonstrating with the fourth official on numerous occasions and opened fire on the opposition post-match.
"We see it incredibly often that opponents come here to Anfield just to lie on the ground," he said. "I also watched the match against Juventus back, and in the first half, the Galatasaray players were on the ground 14 times. That means the game is stopped every three minutes, so there is never any rhythm.
"I felt it was important, not because I was stressed, to show that we couldn't let this happen. I just wanted to create something. To let everyone know that we need to protect football."