Szoboszlai tracked him down after the final whistle. Konate sent a message on Instagram. Victor Osimhen has now spoken on how Liverpool’s players handled the fallout from his broken arm at Anfield.
Victor Osimhen says Dominik Szoboszlai approached him in the tunnel after Galatasaray’s Champions League exit at Anfield and admitted he did not realise the extent of the injury. The Liverpool midfielder had urged Osimhen to get up while he was receiving treatment on the pitch in the seventh minute, an exchange that sparked a visible on-field confrontation. The Nigerian striker, speaking during a late-night Twitch livestream with comedian Carter Efe on Saturday, made clear there were no lingering hard feelings.
“Szoboszlai and I had an on-field conversation,” Osimhen said. “After the game, he came to meet me and mentioned he didn’t know the injury was as serious.” The Super Eagles forward was equally generous about Ibrahima Konate, whose challenge in that opening exchange left Osimhen with a fractured right forearm. “Konate also messaged me on Instagram and told me he didn’t mean to harm me. It’s football, these things happen,” Osimhen added.
A Painful Night at Anfield
Galatasaray had arrived at Anfield needing to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg at RAMS Park in Istanbul. The tie was alive, just barely, until Osimhen’s injury threw Okan Buruk’s plans into disarray. He played on through the pain until halftime, when the medical staff pulled him off, Leroy Sane coming on as his replacement. By the time Galatasaray walked off at full time, they had shipped four goals. Szoboszlai, Ekitike, Gravenberch and Salah all scored as Liverpool eased into the quarter-finals with a 4-1 aggregate win, setting up a last-eight clash with Paris Saint-Germain.
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Surgery Ahead, But Osimhen Stays Calm
Osimhen confirmed he has been told he will need surgery on the fractured forearm. Rather than going straight under the knife in Turkey, he chose to fly home to Nigeria first. “I’m not scared of anything. I’ve faced so much in life,” he said on the stream, a line that landed with conviction given the amount of adversity the Lagos-born striker has had to navigate throughout his career.
The timing of the surgery, and therefore the recovery window, will only become clearer once Osimhen returns to Istanbul and doctors assess the damage properly. Galatasaray have not put a return date on him publicly. As one of the most followed Nigerian players in European football right now, fans tracking his progress can find all the latest updates at FootballInNigeria.com.ng. New Bet9ja users following the Champions League quarter-finals can get started with Nigeria’s top Bet9ja code before the draws are decided.
No Grudges, Just Football
What Osimhen’s account makes clear is that the heat of the incident dissolved quickly on both sides. Szoboszlai and Konate, to their credit, did not wait to be asked. The fact that a Liverpool midfielder sought out a player from the opposing side after a pulsating European night says something about the culture Arne Slot has built at Anfield this season. And Osimhen’s willingness to draw a line under it publicly was equally gracious.
Galatasaray’s Champions League campaign may be over, but Osimhen’s season is far from finished. If he recovers in time for the business end of the Süper Lig, the Turkish title race could yet provide one last chapter. Fans wanting to stake on the outcome can review their options on today’s Bet9ja promo code page before kick-off.
📌 Did You Know?
- Galatasaray’s 1-0 first-leg win over Liverpool at RAMS Park was only the second time in Champions League history that a Turkish club defeated Liverpool in European competition.
- Dominik Szoboszlai has scored in three consecutive Champions League knockout-round appearances for Liverpool this season, making him one of the most consistent performers in the competition.
- Ibrahima Konate has never received a red card in the Champions League across more than 30 appearances in the competition, making the Osimhen incident unusual for a defender known for clean, disciplined defending.
- Victor Osimhen has fractured his face, sustained a serious hamstring injury, and now broken his arm across his career at the highest level, yet has returned to elite form each time.
- Liverpool’s quarter-final opponents PSG have been eliminated at that stage of the Champions League in each of their last three appearances in the competition before this season.
- Leroy Sane, who replaced Osimhen at halftime, scored four Champions League goals during his time at Bayern Munich and was a key figure in their 2020 title run, giving Galatasaray a different type of threat even after the substitution.
- Carter Efe, the comedian who hosted the Twitch livestream with Osimhen, rose to fame in Nigeria with viral football comedy content and has now conducted one of the most candid conversations with the Super Eagles striker in years.
