Thompson unfazed by Turkish task

Liverpool FC's assistant manager Phil Thompson believes there will be nothing to fear in Istanbul next week, despite watching his side fail to break down a resolute Galatasaray SK side in their UEFA Champions League second group stage match at Anfield.

Qualification hopes
The two sides come face to face in the Ali Sami Yen stadium on Tuesday and Liverpool now know that anything other than a victory would do serious damage to their hopes of qualification for the quarter-finals. However, Galatasaray are yet to lose at home in the competition so far and will be backed by a partisan sell-out crowd.

'Difficult place'
"Galatasaray have seen how strong we are tonight and we have nothing to fear when we go away from home next week," Thompson said. "We know it is a difficult place to go but, with our experiences in Europe over the last 18 months, we will be looking to do well."

'Two points lost'
Thompson, along with midfield players Danny Murphy and Dietmar Hamann, will be rueing the chances the FA Premiership side wasted in what proved to be a thrilling encounter. "This is two points lost for us," Thompson said. "There was a bagful of goals to be had tonight but we just couldn't score."

'Missing players'
Galatasaray coach Mircea Lucescu was delighted with the result, a third consecutive Champions League draw for the Turkish club. "We have lost points against [AS] Roma and [FC] Barcelona but I think that this result is compensation for the previous games. We were missing four important players tonight and Liverpool had a full-strength team. We were only as lucky as Liverpool."

'Realistic chance'
Liverpool's Portuguese international defender Abel Xavier was disappointed after the match and admitted that his team-mates had created the chances to win a close-fought match. "I believe that if we had scored with the first good chance, we would have gone on to win the match 2-0," he said. "We still have a realistic chance of going through to the next stage."

Wide open
The two remaining teams in Group B, Barcelona and Roma, played out a 1-1 draw in the Camp Nou in the other match played on Wednesday. That result throws the group wide open, with the Spanish side leading the way on five points. Roma are second, level on three points with Galatasaray, and Liverpool prop up the table with two points. However, with three games remaining, there is still all to play for in this tight group.