Fenerbahçe v Liverpool: Gravenberch out with a fractured heel, and Dirk Kuyt faces his old club in Istanbul
Istanbul, Wednesday 4 November, 18:45 CET, matchday 4. Liverpool have won all three European games and sit fourth of 36; Fenerbahçe, 31st, have not won one. Gravenberch stays at home with a fractured heel.
Liverpool play Fenerbahçe in Istanbul on Wednesday 4 November at 18:45 CET, in the fourth round of the Champions League’s league phase. It is the early game of the night, and it brings together a Liverpool side that has won every European match this season and lost at home to Arsenal on Sunday, and a Fenerbahçe side that changed its coach last week and has not won a Champions League game in ten attempts.
Why it matters
The league phase is one table of 36 clubs. Each team plays eight different opponents; the top eight go straight to the last 16, places nine to 24 go into a play-off round in February, and the bottom 12 are out. Liverpool have nine points from three games, wins over Atlético Madrid, LASK and Villarreal, and are fourth, behind PSG, Barcelona and Aston Villa only on goal difference. A fourth win would take them to 12 points, which Andoni Iraola, the Liverpool head coach, described on Tuesday as the mark that makes qualification safe and lets the club “aim for the top eight”.
Fenerbahçe have two points from two draws and a defeat and are 31st of 36. UEFA’s own preview notes that they are without a win in their last ten Champions League matches, the longest such run in the club’s history, and that this is the first time the two clubs have met in a European competition.
The domestic picture is different for each. Liverpool are fifth in the Premier League with 15 points from nine games, nine behind Arsenal after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Anfield. Fenerbahçe lost 2-1 at home to Göztepe on Saturday, their second defeat in a row in the Turkish league, according to Liverpool’s own team-news page.
The week around it
Liverpool’s next game is at Crystal Palace on Sunday 8 November at 15:00 CET, in the Premier League. The kick-off time comes from the fixture feed used on this site.
Team news
Liverpool published their team news on Tuesday. Ryan Gravenberch has a fractured heel, is receiving treatment and did not travel. “It’s a fracture of the heel,” Iraola said, adding that the player had been uncomfortable and is assessed every day. Jeremie Frimpong (muscle) is out, and Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni are still recovering from long-term injuries. Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo are not in the squad Liverpool registered for the league phase. A 22-man squad flew from Liverpool on Tuesday morning.
Trey Nyoni, the 19-year-old midfielder, is expected to keep his place. “He is playing most of the games, or even all the games lately, so we trust him,” Iraola said. UEFA’s predicted line-up for Liverpool, which is a prediction and not a confirmed team, has Alisson in goal, Szoboszlai, Jacquet, Van Dijk and Tsimikas across the back, Mac Allister in midfield, Muñoz, Wirtz and Barcola behind Isak. That line-up was written before the Gravenberch news; the club’s page says Nyoni is the likely replacement.
Fenerbahçe are coached, for now, by Dirk Kuyt, the former Liverpool forward who came back to the club as an assistant in the summer and was named interim head coach last week. Nathan Aké (hamstring) and Marco Asensio (knee) are out, Jayden Oosterwolde has been out since August, and Kojo Peprah Oppong is a doubt, according to Liverpool’s page and UEFA’s. UEFA’s predicted Fenerbahçe side has Ederson in goal, Škriniar and Guendouzi in the middle, Greenwood and Kerem Aktürkoğlu wide, and Muriqi up front. The official teams are due at 17:45 CET; the card on this page carries the latest price.
What was said
Iraola said Istanbul “is always going to be special for Liverpool”, a reference to the 2005 final the club won in the city. He warned that the home side’s midfield can hurt his team: if Liverpool give them time on the ball or fail to press properly, “we are going to suffer.” Kuyt, quoted on Liverpool’s site, said: “When we show up tomorrow with good energy, with passion and there to play, I think it can be a very special night.”
How to read the market
BettingBeast’s feed, which this site reads at least once an hour, has moved one way on this game all week. On Friday afternoon at 13:54 CET Liverpool were 1.62 to win, roughly a 62% chance by the price (divide 1 by the price to get the chance). By Tuesday morning the price was 1.56, about 64%; by 23:23 CET on Tuesday, after the Gravenberch news, it was 1.54; and at 06:23 CET on Wednesday it was 1.49, about 67%. That is a rise of five percentage points in Liverpool’s chance over five days, which is a real move by this site’s yardstick, and it has come with a long injury list rather than against one. Fenerbahçe have gone the other way, from 5.05 on Friday to 6.89 now, which is a fall from about 20% to about 15%. The draw has drifted from 4.56 to 5.27. Decimal odds show what you get back for each unit staked, including the stake.
Two things to read with care. The handicap, which gives one side a head start in goals so that the two prices sit closer to even money, has mostly been Fenerbahçe +1 and was Fenerbahçe +1.5 at the latest capture, with Fenerbahçe at 1.82 and Liverpool at 2.18 on that line; the feed picks whichever line is nearest to even, so a swap between neighbouring lines is how the feed works, not a change of mind. The goals line has sat at 3.5 since Sunday evening after opening at 2.5, with over 3.5 goals at 2.04 and under at 1.93 at 06:23 CET, so the market now expects a game with more goals than it did on Friday. The chart on this page draws every capture.
What to watch
UEFA’s preview carries a warning for the favourite: Liverpool have lost their last three European away games against Turkish clubs, all 1-0. It also notes that Liverpool have not drawn any of their last 46 UEFA matches. With Gravenberch gone and a teenager running the midfield, and with a home crowd that Iraola spoke about at length, a tighter game than the 12 goals in three Liverpool have scored so far in Europe looks more likely than another easy night. Whether that means a Liverpool win or a Fenerbahçe upset is the question the price answers one way and the record in Turkey the other. That is a reading of the two squads, not a forecast.
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- Fenerbahce v Liverpool: Team news, Liverpool FC. Read 06:50 WAT, 4 Nov 2026.
- Andoni Iraola press conference: Fenerbahce challenge, Istanbul, Trey Nyoni and more, Liverpool FC. Read 06:52 WAT, 4 Nov 2026.
- Champions League starting and predicted line-ups: Matchday 4 team news, injuries, suspensions, UEFA. Read 06:45 WAT, 4 Nov 2026.
- Champions League Matchday 4: Key stats and what to look out for in every game, UEFA. Read 06:48 WAT, 4 Nov 2026.
- Champions League and Premier League standings and fixtures (licensed feed, generated 2026-11-04T05:23Z, in data/latest.json), football-data.org via Match News. Read 06:40 WAT, 4 Nov 2026.
- BettingBeast football prices, captured by this site's odds job (data/odds-series.json and data/odds-latest.json), BettingBeast via Match News. Read 06:40 WAT, 4 Nov 2026.
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