What happened in Turkish football today? 18/02/2020

Mario Lemina will not be able to play for 2-3 weeks.

Galatasaray player Mario Lemina has become injured during Super League 22nd week game against Yeni Malatyaspor and will be missing 2-3 weeks at least and hence would be also missing derby of two continents which without doubt would seen as big loss for side.

It needs to be admitted that when looking overall performance of whole season, after Fernando Muslera for sure, Mario Lemina has provided one of the best performances in this club providing strong trust with his performance in defence and also midfielding position, providing important role also for recent positive results which side did get in those period of time. Therefore, Galatasaray would sure would like for him to be available both during Fenerbahce game and in upcoming weeks, with Fatih Terim especially having right now difficult task of finding replacement for him since there are not much players who can take his place with such form and possibly he would be needed to change some formations putting players in position which their not used to be due of some tactical changes. Stating that Galatasaray does provide good performance in last weeks and his absence might not affected much due of high level performance and confidence of team-mates.

Galatasaray will not come out with one of its main players this season and it would be interesting how side would be responding to this.

Hasan Ali Kaldirim expects to start against Galatasaray

Fenerbahce player Hasan Ali Kaldirim who is reported to be fully recovered from his injury and is expected to be starting 11 during game against Galatasaray with taking leading role at defence.

Absence of Hasan Ali Kaldirim during this period did provide some issues in defensive performance of the team especially for Jailson struggling to provide high level performance in this period of time with conceding high amount of goals due of some unexpected mistakes from him. In fact, Kaldirim was expected to be starting against Ankaragucu last week as he was in good conditions and did provide good game against Kirklarelispor earlier in week but Ersun Yanal didnt want to risk him for this position. With mistake of doing this became clear with conceded goals which came out especially during 2nd half. It needs to be also noted that position which Jailson is playing at is also not his natural position which by itself provided some issues for player and he couldnt provide maximum performance in such position for sure. Therefore,with Hasan Ali Kaldirim starting game if he would provide some calmness and lead for other players to be less worried about defence area including Jailson.

Therefore possible return of Hasan Ali Kaldirim could provide some positive outcome for whole Fenerbahce during very important derby against Galatasaray.

Alanyaspor are one of the strongest title contenders.

Despite of loss during Super League 22nd week game against Gaziantep, Alanyaspor is being right now one of the teams with great form and their would be coming out to Sivasspor game on 21st February as favourites.

Alanyaspor currently finds itself 5 points behind league leaders Trabzonspor, with leaders having game in hand and also currently being at semi-final stage. It needs to be reminded that Alanyaspor did provide best start of the season and did use advantage of other clubs poor start and when taking account it did have period when it did get some unwanted result, did kept them into one of the title contenders with team providing fast tempo performance and in general providing overpassing their expectations and level of performance in those period of time. Its loss to Gaziantep should be seen due of tiredness from Turkish Cup game against Galatasaray which did lead them to be bit tired as it provided strong defensive, and should not be seen as drop of performance. Stating that game against Sivasspor could be very good reference point for them for final stage of league.

Alanyaspor does provide strong performance but its performance this week would show how strong its contender to title but their are on right track.

In other news:

- TFF: Even through our organisation didnt provide discipline action to some of the announcement from clubs and personalities in social media, it doesnt mean we not aware of it. From now on, actions of this would be taken by ethical committee.

- PFDK decisions:
- Fenerbahce has recieved 24,000 TL for not following guidelines.
- Besiktas has recieved 100,000 TL fine while its CEO Ahmet Nur Cebi has recieved 75,000 TL fine for anti-sportmanship statements.
- PFDK referalls:
- Konyaspor has been referred for behaviour of fans and events on field.
- Ankaragucu has been referred for not leaving stairs empty on stands and not following guidelines.
- Fenerbahce has been referred for events on field.
- Galatasaray has been referred for behaviour of fans.

- Turkish referee Ali Palabiyik has appointed to Europa League 2nd round 1st leg game between Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Salzburg.

- Genclerbirligi player Sefa Yilmaz will not be able to play for 6-8 weeks due of injury.

- Besiktas didnt make deal with Mircea Lucescu for sports director and currently interested to appoint Mustafa Denizli for that position.

- Galatasaray player Radamel Falcao expects to be starting against Fenerbahce during Super League 23rd week game.

- Galatasaray player Marcelo Saracchi is expected to start against Fenerbahce during Super League 23rd week game.

- Fenerbahce administrators have decided to have meeting with Galatasaray administrators on 23rd February.

- Galatasaray CEO Mustafa Cengiz will be coming to Fenerbahce game during Super League 23rd week at Sukru Saracoglu Stadium.

- Barcelona are interested to transfer Galatasaray player Mustafa Kapi