21 September 2023 , 08:49
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Former Liverpool goalkeeper Kamil Grabara made his frustration clear after his FC Copenhagen team missed a golden opportunity to start their Champions League campaign with an away win.
The Danish champions earned just three points and scored just one goal in last season's competition, finishing bottom of a group containing Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla. That looked to be set to change away to Galatasaray, though, as Mohamed Elyounoussi put them in front in Istanbul and Diogo Goncalves doubled their lead.
A red card for Elias Jelert gave Galatasaray hope, though, and they seized their opportunity late on. Sacha Boey halved the deficit with four minutes of regular time remaining, and then Wilfried Zaha laid on a late equaliser for former Leicester winger Tete.
With FC Copenhagen facing Bayern Munich in their next game, the dropped points could prove painful. It certainly appeared to feel that way to Grabara, who voiced his frustrations in no uncertain terms.
"Deserved all three points from that s*** hole, but that's life, we move on," Grabara, who joined Copenhagen from Liverpool in 2021 wrote on Instagram. The Polish international later edited the post, changing "s*** hole" to "s*** game", per Football Ramble.
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Copenhagen boss Jacob Neestrup voiced his own frustrations more measuredly. "We had a clear plan to go down here and win, and it makes us very, very disappointed that we didn't win after the second half we delivered," the 35-year-old said.
"It is clearly the biggest disappointment in terms of results in my time as head coach, and ironically it [Neestrup's appointment] was exactly one year ago today. But I haven't had this feeling before, because with a win, we could have played for it right to the last round. So right now it's two points lost, and not one won."
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Kamil Grabara made his frustrations clear
The keeper later edited his social media postNeestrup's team also have Bayern Munich and Manchester United in their group, with the Bundesliga champions winning their home meeting with the Premier League side. Thomas Tuchel's men claimed a 4-3 victory, after which goalscorer Leroy Sane suggested they weren't yet at their best.
"It was a pretty wild game. We were good going forward, but have to stop making so many mistakes," the German winger said.
"There was just too much of that. It was definitely a spectacle for the fans, but we needed to calm the game down and do better on the counter-attack.
"We were 2-0 up. That's when we have to take control of the game, especially when we win back the ball; then we have to find the right man."
Sane's team-mate Konrad Laimer echoed those comments, saying: "There were phases when we could have controlled the game better. We had chances to make the win safe, but we let the opposition back into it.
"The important thing is starting with three points," he continued. "We know we can and have to improve. If we win in the end, it's good."