{"id":197092,"date":"2026-03-19T19:46:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T18:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:55:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:55:26","slug":"ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool","title":{"rendered":"UCL Slot Says Osimhen’s Absence Helped Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, has admitted that Victor Osimhen\u2019s early injury made it easier for the Reds to beat Galatasaray in their Champions League clash on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The Premier League giants won 4-0 on the night, progressing to the quarter-finals 4-1 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

Osimhen sustained an arm injury early in the game following a tackle from France international Ibrahim Konate.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian striker, however, managed to complete the first half, before he was substituted after the break.<\/p>\n

Liverpool led 1-0 in the first half thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s strike.<\/p>\n

Hugo Ektike, Ryan Gravenberch, and Mohamed Salah added more goals for the hosts in the second half.<\/p>\n

Slot said Osimhen\u2019s injury worked in favour of his team.<\/p>\n

\u201dOsimhen is an incredible player for them,\u201d Slot noted. \u201cYeah, [the injury] worked for us, but when you look at the first 10 minutes and how the team played with him, I thought he would play the full 90 because the rest of the team plays so well off him,\u201d Slot said after the game.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, has admitted that Victor Osimhen\u2019s early injury made it easier for the Reds to beat Galatasaray in their Champions League clash on Wednesday night. The Premier League giants won 4-0 on the night, progressing to the quarter-finals 4-1 on aggregate. Osimhen sustained an arm injury early in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":197091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-197092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"\nUCL Slot Says Osimhen's Absence Helped Liverpool - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, has admitted that Victor Osimhen\u2019s early injury made it easier for the Reds to beat Gal ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCL Slot Says Osimhen's Absence Helped Liverpool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, has admitted that Victor Osimhen\u2019s early injury made it easier for the Reds to beat Gal ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-19T18:46:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-19T19:55:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773950066.850202.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UCL Slot Says Osimhen’s Absence Helped Liverpool\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-19T18:46:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-19T19:55:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool\"},\"wordCount\":194,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773950066.850202.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ucl-slot-says-osimhens-absence-helped-liverpool\",\"name\":\"UCL Slot Says Osimhen's Absence Helped Liverpool - 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