What happened in Turkish football today? 28/01/2024

Fenerbahce beats Ankaragucu with strong organised game.

Intense title race is being continued with Fenerbahce beating Ankaragucu at home ground with 2:1 scoreline thanks to the goals from Cengiz Under as side has dominated game especially at defence.

Close scoreline of the game should not provide view that it has been close team as Fenerbahce has been in control of the game apart of possibly moment when it did conceded from penalty from Livakovski pretty harsh penalty position. To some extend, Fenerbahce didnt have still very good start of the game as Ankaragucu did prevent a bit of its opponent and did have some control of the game but after 2:1 when Cengiz Under has scored on 20th and 32nd minute, it did get full control of the game with showing compact defence and didnt let Ankaragucu to get closer into goal. Without doubt, main player has been Cengiz Under who did get get 1st shot with position which been mixed as cross and goal while he was providing good positioning in 2nd goal and in overall has shown good performance and did in fact look for hat-trick.

Ankaragucu did come to the game as side did come in good confidence and this could be seen from first 30 minutes but after 2:1 it did lose concentration and didnt provide too much danger into goal as this game to some extend has allowed for Belozoglu sight to recognise its level as team

Fenerbahce did show signs that it is focussed to end season with title as it been shown strong confidence and organised game and now has provided lots of positive view for upcoming games.

Besiktas continues showing ineffective attacking game as it lost to Sivasspor

Besiktas continues showing poor performance as it lost to Sivasspor with minumum scoreline of 1:0 as it is being one of the difficult away games in the league but as been noted club had a bad run for last 3 games.

With conceding an early goal from Sivasspor from Manaj at 6th minute, it was clear that Besiktas would be having some serious issues and with opponent getting confidence and more defensive game, has made things even more difficult. Besiktas it needs to be stated that didnt provide very attacking and creative game which has led for the team to end half without any shots on target and did look to be pretty passive. It did raise some tempo during 2nd half but still it wasnt enough to provide too much pressure at Sivasspor while opponent did continue to showing strong defensive game. 

Therefore, Sivasspor did show some organised game at defensive game as key for finding an early goal which has led side to provide organised defense and using poor attacking game on recent week of Besiktas into its own advantage.

Target for league title for Besiktas without doubt is being out of question but this recent question could also provide issues for getting European spots and it does need to find solution at showing more agressive and effective attacking game for sure.

Galatasaray will be expected to have some tough period with Gaziantep

Title race between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce will be continued with former side meeting at home ground against Gaziantep as it would be expected for team to be once again played at full ground and Istanbul giant having tough game.

It needs to be mentioned that with getting into point where any loss of points could be leading into losing title at the end of the season, games quite naturally start turning out to be more precaurious and careful and similar could be expected in this game. Even through Gaziantep are being at close to relegation zone at table, it does provide good and attacking games on the field and hence could provide some issues to Galatasaray with its specifically defence issues. Galatasaray did have some issues at finding goals and getting upper hand against Istanbulspor on last game and similar could be case as an early goal could be key for good result. 

Galatasaray hence would be expecting to having some issues at finding good chances but with push of supporters it would be still seen as favourite.

Results:

Turkish Super League, 23rd week:

Konyaspor 2:3 Basaksehirspor

Fatih Karagumruk 4:0 Rizespor

Sivasspor 1:0 Besiktas

Fenerbahce 2:1 Ankaragucu

Schedule:

Turkish Super League, 23rd week:

17:00 Istanbulspor - Samsunspor

17:00 Kayserispor - Antalyaspor

20:00 Galatasaray - Gaziantep

20:00 Trabzonspor - Kasimpasa

In other news:

- Kayserispor has appointed Burak Yilmaz as club's head coach for 2.5 years.

- BayernMunich has signed Galatasaray player Sacha Boey for 30 million+5 million euro until 2028

- Galatasaray has made extension deal with its player Lucas Torreira.

- Besiktas has started transfer negotiations with PSG player Danilo Pereira and Cher Ndour.

- Galatasaray has set transfer fee of its player Tete 8-9 million euro.

- Galatasaray are interested to transfer Rennes player Truffert.