What happened in Turkish football today? 07/02/2020

Sivasspor need to get into winning ways again. 

Even through this is being 2 leg game and 0:0 could be seen as good outcome when playing away with 10 men for 2nd half, it needs to be noted that Sivasspor carries on showing decline of performance when meeting with struggling Antalyaspor.

One of the main questions during this season has been if Sivasspor which are leaders in the league would be able to take into pressure of fighting for league title and during recent weeks as it lost 4 points in last 2 games, their are question if it carry on like that. This pressure hence very likely has affected to their quarter-final game against Antalyaspor where it provided defensive performance prior to Issac Cofie and didnt manage to get into high amount of chances. Even through not conceding goal away does look advantage for team, in same it could be going for away goal which could provided them some calmer game. What it does seem that Sivasspor needs to show much more effective game right now and focus into winning games as it would be meeting with Basaksehirspor in league and 2nd leg game against Antalyaspor next week.

Sivasspor is in decline right now but it does have time and small advantage to keep its top form in both competitions as long as it start winning again.

Antalyaspor showed controllable game.

Antalyaspor on other hand despite of not getting strong advantage for winning game especially in 2nd half, still didnt lose game as it was showing poor performance this season so draw with league leaders could provide some confidence.

Antalyaspor it needs to be admitted did approach in right manner with showing mainly patient game against still highly concentrated Sivasspor focussing into more defensive game which possibly them not to get advantage of extra men in 2nd half. It could be argued hence that Antalyaspor didnt use its opportunity but as been noted 0:0 could be seen as good outcome for both sides in 2 leg feature, and even through it would be much difficult to play away goal, it does have small advantage when scoring one goal with Sivasspor needing to be scoring 2 goals in that scenario. Therefore, Antalyaspor would need to be showing much more brave football which could be solved from players being more confident which can happen with Tuna providing self-confidence to players.

Therefore, Antalyaspor did provide as opponent defensive focussed game but all jobs left for 2nd leg for sure with this outcome.

Alanyaspor expects to provide difficult time to Fenerbahce.

One of the main games during this week would be between Fenerbahce and Alanyaspor as both sides are providing intense title race among many clubs and would be aiming to get advantage over their direct opponents.

It needs to be admitted that even through are coming out in similar form and position, it could be noted that Alanyaspor does have slight advantage as it won with confident performance Galatasaray in Turkish Cup while Fenerbahce did play game which it was expected to win for sure and plus did lose last league game against other direct opponent. Stating that, Fenerbahce does provide strong performance at its home ground and generally showing improvement with its performance in recent weeks and if it aims to provide similar performance it did against Basaksehirspor it would have advantage. It needs to be noted that Alanyaspor does have weak results in away games against top 4 clubs which also could provide issues, but again it does have its best season which means this negative statistics could be broken as team showing good performance. Staying with Alanyaspor performance which it shows, even if it losses, could provide how much its contender for title.

Fenerbahce are favourites but only slightly and it would be exciting game for sure as winner would be able to make their title race bit stronger.

Results:

Turkish Super League, 21st week:

Yeni Malatyaspor 0:1 Ankaragucu

Schedule:

Turkish Super League, 21st week:

14:00 Konyaspor - Denizlispor

17:00 Genclerbirligi - Trabzonspor

17:00 Besiktas - Gaziantep

20:00 Fenerbahce - Alanyaspor

In other news:

- PFDK referalls:

- Alanyaspor and Galatasaray has been referred for teamwise seeing 6 yellow cards.
- Fenerbahce has recieved for behavior of fans.
- Antalyaspor, Besiktas, Rizespor, Sivasspor, Galatasaray, Gaziantep, Goztepe, Kayserispor, Konyaspor, Basaksehirspor,Ankaragucu, Trabzonspor and Denizlispor has been referred for not following guideliness regarding agents.
-Sivasspor player Isaac Cofie has been referred for breaking rules.

- TurkishCup quarter-final 2nd leg games to be played on 13th February has been changed, with new times being:
17:00 Erzurumspor-Trabzonspor
19:15: Sivasspor- Antalyaspor

- Antalyaspor has changed its name to Fraport TAV Antalyaspor due of sponsorship deal

- Fenerbahce will have administrative board meeting on 8th February.

- Sivasspor player Petar Skuletic has become injured following Turkish Cup quarter-final game against Antalyaspor.

- Besiktas are interested to transfer Kocaelispor players Gokdeniz Bayraktar and Alp Salman

- Besiktas are interested to transfer Basaksehirspor player Volkan Babacan and Rizespor player Gokhan Akkan