Galatasaray vs Barcelona Preview: Osimhen Back for the First Time Since September, Raphinha Out, and Nine Games Without a Win Against Spanish Opposition
The league phase restarts more than a month after it opened, and it restarts in Istanbul. Galatasaray have no points, sitting twenty-ninth of thirty-six after a 3-1 defeat at Sporting CP on 9 September, and they have not beaten a Spanish club in nine attempts. Barcelona have won every one of their nine matches this season, scoring 39 goals and conceding eight, and arrive without the forward who scored twice on the opening night. What stands between those two statements is a ground where Okan Buruk’s side have lost one of their last six home league-phase matches and have not been beaten by more than a single goal in nearly three years.
A Month Is a Long Time to Wait for a Second Matchday
The 2026/27 league phase opened on 8 September and did not resume until this week. Barcelona’s opening night was the 5-1 win over Feyenoord at the Camp Nou on 9 September, with Raphinha scoring twice and Gabriel Jesus, Lamine Yamal and Karim Adeyemi also on the scoresheet. Galatasaray’s was rather different: they led in Lisbon through a Gonçalo Inácio own goal before Sporting turned it around with goals from Catamo, Luis Suárez and Rodrigo Zalazar.
The domestic form on either side of that result explains the mood. Galatasaray have taken the Turkish title in every season since 2023 and sit top of the Süper Lig again with five wins from seven. They beat Kasımpaşa 3-1 on Friday, and it was Mario Lemina who settled it in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Barcelona beat Getafe 3-0 at the weekend with goals from Anthony Gordon, Gabriel Jesus and Jules Koundé, which was, by their standards, restrained: they have failed to score more than three in only three of their nine matches.
Head-to-Head: The Last Five
| Date | Competition | Result | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar 2022 | UEFA Europa League, round of 16 | Galatasaray 1-2 Barcelona | Barcelona |
| 10 Mar 2022 | UEFA Europa League, round of 16 | Barcelona 0-0 Galatasaray | Draw |
| 13 Nov 2002 | UEFA Champions League | Barcelona 3-1 Galatasaray | Barcelona |
| 24 Sep 2002 | UEFA Champions League | Galatasaray 0-2 Barcelona | Barcelona |
| 19 Mar 2002 | UEFA Champions League | Galatasaray 0-1 Barcelona | Barcelona |
Across all ten competitive meetings Barcelona have six wins to Galatasaray’s one — that one coming in 1994 — with three draws. The most recent tie was the 2022 Europa League round of 16, which Barcelona won 2-1 on aggregate. Galatasaray’s current run without a win against Spanish opposition stands at nine matches.
Three Things That Will Decide It
1. How much Victor Osimhen can actually play
He has been out with a groin problem since early September and missed the defeat in Lisbon. He came off the bench against Kasımpaşa on Friday, had a chance saved around the eightieth minute and then set up Lemina’s winner in the ninety-sixth. His record in this competition for Galatasaray is seven goals and three assists in ten appearances. Whether he starts, and for how long, is the single most important question of the evening; Deniz Gül is the alternative if Buruk decides to ease him back in.
2. Barcelona without their leading scorer
Raphinha picked up a thigh problem on international duty with Brazil and missed the Getafe match. He had scored twice on the opening league-phase night. Frenkie de Jong, Andreas Christensen and Roony Bardghji are also out. The compensation is that Eric García is available again after suspension kept him out of the Feyenoord match, and Lamine Yamal has produced a goal or an assist in each of his last seven club appearances.
3. The Rams Park record, and what it is built on
Galatasaray have lost one of their last six home league-phase matches and have not lost one by more than a goal in close to three years. Three of their last four home meetings with heavyweight European visitors — Juventus, Atlético Madrid and Liverpool twice — were low-scoring. Buruk is not expected to play as openly here as his side did in Lisbon, where they had more of the ball and pressed high but left space behind them that Sporting used three times.
Expected Line-ups
Neither club had confirmed a starting eleven at the time of writing. The names below follow the most widely reported projected sides; treat both as provisional and check the team sheets about an hour before kick-off. Reporting differs in a couple of positions, noted underneath.
Galatasaray
- GK Uğurcan Çakır
- DF Barış Alper Yılmaz, Abdulkerim Bardakcı, Davinson Sánchez, Ismail Jakobs
- MF Mario Lemina, Lucas Torreira
- AM Yunus Akgün, Gabriel Sara, Rafael Leão
- ST Victor Osimhen — fitness to be assessed
Out: Wilfried Singo (thigh) — Buruk named him as the only absentee at his Monday press conference. Roland Sallai returned to the bench on Friday after an unspecified problem. Barış Alper Yılmaz is projected at right-back because Singo is the one defender who covers both that position and centre-back.
Barcelona
- GK Joan García
- DF Eric García, Gerard Martín, Pau Cubarsí, João Cancelo
- MF Pedri, Rodri, Dani Olmo
- FW Lamine Yamal, Gabriel Jesus, Karim Adeyemi
Out: Raphinha (thigh), Frenkie de Jong, Andreas Christensen, Roony Bardghji. Eric García is back after missing the Feyenoord match through suspension. Flick has rotated heavily at times this season, so late changes are possible.
Where reporting differs: some previews put Fermín López in behind the front three rather than Olmo, and at least one has Anthony Gordon wide instead of Adeyemi. On the Galatasaray side, one projected back four uses Sallai at right-back with Bardakcı and Sánchez as the centre-back pair, and another starts Leroy Sané wide with Osimhen only on the bench. We have not picked a side in any of those arguments.
Key Battles
Lamine Yamal against Ismail Jakobs
Yamal has a goal or an assist in each of his last seven club matches and produced one goal and two assists against Feyenoord. Jakobs is the full-back who will see most of him. If Galatasaray double up, they lose the width that their counter-attacking depends on; if they do not, Barcelona have the cleanest route into the box they will get all night.
Victor Osimhen against Pau Cubarsí and Eric García
Barcelona defend high, and that is precisely the space Osimhen and Rafael Leão want to run into. Cubarsí and Eric García have conceded eight in nine matches between them, so they are not being asked to fix a leaky back line — but a striker with seven goals in ten league-phase appearances for this club changes the arithmetic of how high that line can sit.
Mario Lemina and Lucas Torreira against Pedri, Rodri and Dani Olmo
Torreira was sent off against Kasımpaşa on Friday after a review upgraded a yellow card, and Lemina only just returned from a groin problem of his own — and then scored the winner. Neither is a natural partner for the other in a double pivot, and both are being asked to disrupt the passing of a midfield three that has been running Barcelona’s season. Buruk’s team had more possession than Sporting in Lisbon and lost; controlling the middle without leaving space behind is the whole brief.
Kit Note: Galatasaray and Barcelona
Barcelona’s rail runs from the current home shirt and the home shirt in the lighter match fabric, through the youth away shirt, last season’s third shirt and this season’s goalkeeper shirt, to the women’s home shirt. Galatasaray’s carries the current home shirt, the long-sleeve home shirt — useful for a 17°C October night in Istanbul — and last season’s third shirt. Everything below is live in the shop and priced the same across every size.
Barcelona — the current home shirt, the home shirt in the lighter match fabric, the youth away shirt, last season’s third shirt, this season’s goalkeeper shirt and the women’s home shirt
Swipe to browse 6 Barcelona jerseys
Galatasaray — the current home shirt, the long-sleeve home shirt, and last season’s third shirt
Swipe to browse 3 Galatasaray jerseys
