VIDEO: No sleep for Liverpool stars! Galatasaray fans launch huge fireworks display outside team hotel at 2AM ahead of Champions League clash in Istanbul

Galatasaray are famed for the hostile atmosphere that they generate at RAMS Park, with several English sides experiencing that down the years. Manchester United were among the first, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s side infamously getting a ‘Welcome to Hell’ message when travelling to Turkey.

Liverpool have made a similar trip on a couple of occasions, while Istanbul provided the backdrop for their stunning Champions League triumph against AC Milan in 2005. The city holds many happy memories, but it remains to be seen what their latest competitive outing there will deliver.

Videos have emerged online of fireworks being set off outside Liverpool’s hotel in the early hours of the morning. Sleep inside said building is likely to have been disrupted by the screeching outside. The skies of Istanbul were lit up, with the display still going on at 3:55am local time.

Premier League champions Liverpool need everybody to be fresh and firing when facing Gala - who have won all seven of their Super Lig games this season. They have the likes of ex-Manchester City stars Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane at their disposal, as well as prolific Nigeria international striker Victor Osimhen.

Liverpool will have known what to expect when heading to Turkey, with former Reds defender Glen Johnson having told 10bet of his experiences in that part of the world: “Look, the lads will all have been there or somewhere else like that in their careers before. But they can’t control it, so all they need to worry about is what is in their control. You’ve got to play your normal game, and hope that a good start goes some way to silencing the crowd. It might be borderline impossible to quiet them down, but it’s easier to do if you’re winning. If things go wrong and you concede early, then you only encourage the fans to get even nastier and noisier. So my advice to Liverpool is to keep it tight, stay together, ignore the crowd and get a good start. If they do that, they will be fine.

“I played in Besiktas, and I think it was a pretty similar atmosphere. The game got stopped three times because of objects constantly getting chucked on the pitch. It got to the point where we had to go off, because there were so many lighters, toilet rolls and flares being thrown on the pitch every other minute. It’s carnage.”

Dean Saunders, who represented Liverpool and Galatasaray in his playing career, told BestBettingSites.com of trying to cope with lively goings on in the crowd: “Liverpool’s players have played in huge games before. They will know how to deal with pressure. At Galatasaray, I loved it there. It was a great club with unbelievable support. A 7pm kick off would see the fans in the stadium by 12. Banging drums, red and yellow smoke everywhere. I played there sometimes and we couldn’t see the pitch under the yellow and red.

“We played Sparta Prague and I just felt sorry for them as they tried to cope. I thought, this must be murder for them. But the manager will tell his players the same thing. Whatever else is going on, it’s 11 v 11. It’s the same size pitch. Nobody is coming from the crowd to tackle you or save your shots. It’s all psychological, so put it out of your mind.”

Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the 2025-26 campaign last time out, when going down 2-1 at Crystal Palace, and will be eager to offer a positive response to that dramatic setback when bidding for a second European victory of the league phase - having opened with a thrilling 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid at Anfield.