Liverpool led this game twice and still lost it. Fenerbahçe came from behind on both occasions to win 3-2 in the Champions League, turning what had looked like a controlled Liverpool evening into another miserable night in Turkey for the Premier League side.
The visitors had their chances to put the match away. Instead they handed Fenerbahçe a way back in with defending that BBC Sport's live coverage called sloppy, and Alisson was involved in more than one of the moments that mattered.
Nyoni scores, Greenwood answers almost at once
Trey Nyoni put Liverpool in front in the 25th minute. It was a good start for a young player on a big night, and for a while it felt like it might settle the visitors. It did not. Four minutes later Mason Greenwood equalised for Fenerbahçe, and the game that had looked like it was going Liverpool's way was level again before half-time.
It stayed 1-1 at the break, which was fair enough on the balance of the first half.
Isak restores the lead, then it unravels
Alexander Isak looked to have decided it in the 69th minute, getting his head to a Cody Gakpo delivery to make it 2-1. Former Scotland striker Ally McCoist, working for TNT Sports, called it a good header. It lasted four minutes.
Archie Brown levelled in the 73rd after a reverse ball from N'Golo Kanté. Gakpo's touch took the ball away from a Liverpool defender, and with a lack of communication around Alisson, as McCoist put it, Brown was left at the back post with a simple tap-in. Six minutes later Vedat Muriqi met Brown's cross with a header to make it 3-2. Stephen Warnock, the former Liverpool defender, described it as the softest goal of the night, since nobody in red made a physical challenge when the ball came in. McCoist, for his part, spent the replay looking for his goalkeeper.
Liverpool run out of time
Liverpool pushed for a third equaliser, but the chances were thin. A Virgil van Dijk header was saved by Ederson in the 82nd minute, Gakpo found space on the left in the 88th and put in a low cross that Isak could not turn on target, and in added time Bradley Barcola found Van Dijk in the box only for the defender to skie his shot.
The home side had a late scare of their own, with Alisson heading a clearance to nobody and Matteo Guendouzi dragging a shot wide, but it did not cost them. Fenerbahçe held on and the stadium got the result its second-half comeback had earned.
For Liverpool it is a heavy defeat on a ground where they have struggled before, and a fresh reminder that leading in this competition counts for very little if the back line keeps handing the other side goals. For Brown, an assist and a goal in one Champions League night is about as good an answer as a left-back can give.
Match facts: Fenerbahçe 3-2 Liverpool, Champions League league phase, Wednesday 4 November 2026. Goals: Trey Nyoni (25 minutes) and Alexander Isak (69, assisted by Cody Gakpo) for Liverpool; Mason Greenwood (29), Archie Brown (73) and Vedat Muriqi (79, assisted by Brown) for Fenerbahçe. Half-time: 1-1.
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