What happened in Turkish football today? 31/03/2025

 

Konyaspor are clear favourites against Iskendurunspor

 Turkish Cup quarter-finals would be starting with Konyaspor game against surprising side Iskendurunspor at the game where Konyaspor would be seen as strong favourite against opponent which is 3 leagues ties below them.

 To all respect to Iskendurunspor, it was clear that whoever would have been drawn against this side would be coming at advantage side and it would be interesting to see how Konyaspor would be responding. Stating that taking lightly its opponent could be risky and hence it would be expected for side to provide an aggressive game seeking for getting even possibly couple of goals at early minutes which would let them to show possibly relaxing game. Calmness and focus from Konyaspor hence could lead them to get calm win which would be expected from them.

 Konyaspor hence are being strong favourites but it would be important from them to stay focussed and prevent for game to become difficult and stressful.

 Iskendurunspor has no pressure at all.

 Iskendurunspor without doubt has arleady written a history and would be just enjoying to be at Turkish Cup final playing against Konyaspor which has been at top league for years and got some good results at Turkish Cup.

 Iskendurunspor would be coming with clear head as there would not be any pressure towards them for success and possibly only push for them to get win would be possibility to play either against Galatasaray or Fenerbahce at semifinal stage at the tournament. Hence, Iskendurunspor would be focussing to show calm game without much pressure and would seek mainly to show organised strong defensive game.

 Iskendurunspor has arleady written history at the tournament and now would be aiming to show some good memorable performance against Konyaspor.

 Ibrahim Hatipoglu announced his worries for Turkish Cup game against Fenerbahce regarding referee.

 Galatasaray administrator Ibrahim Hatipoglu has made statement regarding of referee which has been appointed to derby game at derby game against Fenerbahce at Turkish Cup focussing mainly into his inexperience.

 Stating that main issue for team is level of referee rather than his nationality, he adds that Cihan Aydin doesn’t have much experience and is not FIFA branched referee. Hatipoglu also notices that some drastic measures both with foreign referee and security measure were taken during game which has been at their ground but not same measures are pleasant at Fenerbahce stadium which does show that TFF does take some stance at both games in their view and does argue rightfully to some extend that this does show TFF is not treating issue equally. Galatasaray does have some rightfully viewpoint but to some extend keep rising tensions especially at Ramadan holiday would not be great strategy.

 It also needs to be reminded that despite of worry during derby game against Besiktas, referee did pretty good job and it would be good for each party interested that Cihan Aydin would have also good office day at derby game.

Results: 

Turkish Super League, 29th week:

Eyupspor 1:3 Basaksehirspor

Schedule:

Turkish Cup, Quarter-Finals:

20:30 Konyaspor - Iskendurunspor

In other news:

–    TFF has announced referees for Turkish Cup quarter-finals:

–    01/04:

–    20:30 Konyaspor - Iskendurunspor: Ozan Ergun

–    02/04:

–    17:45 Trabzonspor - Bodrum: Zorbay Kucuk

–    20:45: Fenerbahce-Galatasaray: Cihan Aydin

–    03/04:

–    - 20:30: Besiktas - Goztepe: Atilla Karaoglan

Sivasspor players Noah Sonko Sundberg and Samba Camara has resumed training session after resuming from injuries.

–    Trabzonspor are interested to transfer Istanbulspor player Emir Kaan Gultekin.

–    Fenerbahce considers to extend contract with its player Irfan Can Egribat until 2029.

–    Juventus doesnt consider to sell its player Kenan Yildiz during summer transfer window.

Fenerbahce player Serdar Aziz would consider to end his footballing career if he wouldn't sign with another club during summer transfer window.

What happened in Turkish football today? 30/03/2025

Galatasaray has lost its first game of season despite of being in decline in recent weeks.

 

In all fairness towards Galatasaray, decline of team’s performance has been visible for some time but despite of that it was managing not to lose game but it was still expected for them to lose a game somewhere as it lost at derby game against Besiktas.

 

Apart of losing a game and also playing with 10 men for most amount of game, it needs to be mentioned that team has provided its worst performance at Super League during this season as it had trouble to get inside the team and also prevent Besiktas creating chances as its own effective players not being to show any strong performance which might bring win to the side as goal did come from incredible shot from Lucas Torreira which has been only positive factor which team has did during whole time. Galatasaray head coach Okan Buruk also performance has been in declining matter as he failed to find solutions for this poor performance and in fact didn’t make changes when game has been called for as he waited too long with some extend being stubborn to system which is not working.

 

With Galatasaray not playing during next week, it is being on risk of point difference to be dropped with 3 points and despite of having head-to-head advantage its recent performance and this game could provide pressure to them in last 8 games.

 

Besiktas carries on showing dominant game against big 4 opponents.

 

Besiktas biggest character during this season is performance against other big 4 clubs especially at home ground and it has repeated its characteristic against Galatasaray as dominated game from start to an end.

 

Even through this matter wasn’t actively discussed prior to game, it was visible that Besiktas possibly losing its not keeping not losing title record solely which it gained in 1991-92 season has provided strong motivation as it stopped that run of opponent. Besiktas has created high number of chances and didn’t let Galatasaray to show an effective game and hence got well-deserved win.

 

Besiktas now has set an eye to 3^rd spot and without doubt at league it would be aiming to achieve that in next 9 games and this could motivate to show top level game until end of the season.

 

Trabzonspor does have issues with stamina.

 

Trabzonspor head coach Fatih Tekke debut at home ground hasn’t been successful as he drawn against Goztepe and still fails to show strong and dominant game as its hopes for European spots is getting less and less.

 

In all fairness, it would need to be admitted that team did show good performance during 1^st half with controlling ball and having attacks with scoring goal after 2 minutes of conceding penalty which without doubt shows good reaction of whole team but it showed serious decline of tempo and creativity and 2^nd half which hence does show an issue at stamina as Fatih Tekke would likely work on that in upcoming games.

 

Trabzonspor did show some signs of improvement but with 9 games left at league it would be unreasonable for them to show such top level game.

Results:

Turkish Super League, 29th week:

20:00 Eyupspor - Basaksehirspor

In other news:

–    InterMilan are interested to transfer Besiktas player Ciro Immobile.

- Besiktas would paay more than 1 million euro bonuses for win against Galatasaray.

What happened in Turkish football today? 30/01/2025

Fenerbahce reached to knockout stage with luck and in some detirmination.

Fenerbahce has managed to qualify to Europa League play-off round after ending its last game at group stage against Midjalland with 2:2 scoreline as it has been too some extend lucky to do so as it qualify at getting last spot.

It needs to be mentioned that Fenerbahce did play to some extend with fire to some extend and has been lucky to get to knockout stages and even through at most amount of time it did provide good performance especially at start of both halves and showed strongest character to get result, it carried on making some important mistakes at defensive line. It needs to be praised however that Fenerbahce did show good reaction when it did concede goal on 1^st half as it did find great goal with  En Nesyri and also during start of 2^nd half with Edin Dzeko but it did provide some nervous moments towards end of the game during which it did concede and has been  at knife edge. Another positive factor that even through in last minutes it was located at advantage spot for knockout, it did showed strong attacking game which led for team to find winning goal but luckily for them things went as their wished for and has got outcome which it needed.

Midjylland which also got through to play-off round did take time to get inside the game as it shown some slow game and couldn’t respond to control of game but it did show good reaction and found 2 crucial goal which made them to go through without much maths at the end.

Fenerbahce still needs to improve its defensive game which has been clear during this game and hopefully for them newly-signed players would sort out this issue.

Galatasaray has got play-off round but would be dissapointed not to get top 8 spot.

Even through Galatasaray did come out as most relaxed side for play-off round it still did come out to the game with a focus to end group stage at top 8 but it did lose to Ajax with 2:1 scoreline and has dropped to 14^th spot but still would be still among seeded sides.

It needs to be mentioned that possibly either securing play-off round or generally decline which Galatasaray has been in recent weeks, side didn’t provide very strong performance during 1^st half as it did look pretty passive and couldn’t get much chances and generally control of the game as it became clear that with this set mind it could be tough to get top 8 spot which it did seek for. Ajax which did aim to get higher spot at the standings did look to be more motivated which led them to find 2 goals at 2^nd half. Galatasaray didn’t necessarily provide very poor performance but didn’t have same effectiveness which  it had in the start of the season and once again it did have some issues at defensive line. Towards end of the game it could be mentioned that Galatasaray did raise tempo but single goal which did come out to late and it had drop from 9^th spot to 14^th spot and would feel dissapointed when looking how great it started group stage.

Ajax has been heavily criticised for getting loss to RFS during last week and hence it needed to show some reaction at the field which it did in effective manner and did an important win witn an effective manner as it stays among key favourites to win whole competition without doubt.

Galatasaray didn’t achieve its main task but still it would be glad with outcome of the tournament but it would need to sort its defensive game which does look to be its main issue right now at the field.

Besiktas has become only Turkish side not to get to the play-off round

Most dissapointed and unwanted result without doubt did come from Besiktas which did lose its last game against Twente at group stage which has ended with 1:0 scoreline and hence has been relegated from competition while Dutch opponent did gain 23^rd spot.

It needs to be mentioned that generally decline which Besiktas which are going through right now has been carried on this game also as Besiktas didn’t provide dominant game which has been shown against Athletic Bilbao as Twente did look to be more focussed into creating chances with creating much more dangerous chances while Besiktas did have some issues even through it did also created chances and could be argued that Besiktas did play for win without doubt. Still, it didn’t prevent Twente with creating lots of chances which led for eventually conceding goal from Rots at 78^th minute while Besiktas could convert some very important chances as it did lack that final touches during whole game. Besiktas didn’t provide that initial final touch which it would need to get win from game but it did provide some good effort.

Twente did come out to the game which it needed to win and it has provided performance according to that as it did create some important chances and provided pressure to Besiktas goal and eventually did find goal.

It would be wrong to put elimination of Besiktas from competition solely to this game as it would be not right to state that team in general did struggle at most games during this group stage.

Results:

UEFA Europa League, Group Stage, 8th week:

Midjylland 2:2 Fenerbahce

Ajax 2:1 Galatasaray

Twente 1:0 Besiktas

Schedule:

Turkish Super League, 22nd week:

20:00 Eyupspor - Sivasspor

20:00 Konyaspor - Bodrum

In other news:

Kayserispor will have an early CEO election on 15th February.

AdanaDemirspor has appointed Mustafa Alper Avci as club's head coach for 1.5 years.

–    Alanyaspor has loaned Pendikspor player Enes Keskin with transfer option

Persepolis has signed Alanyaspor player Serdal Dursun

–    WestHamUnited are interested to transfer Besiktas player Alex Oxlade Chamberlain.

–    Basaksehirspor has made transfer deal with Udinese player Festy Ebosele.

–    Galatasaray has restarted transfer negotiations with Trabzonspor player Eren Elmali.

–    Fenerbahce has offered an extension to its player Ismail Yuksek until 2028.

–    RedStarBelgrade player Ognjej Mimovic would arrive to Istanbul on 31st January for one-on-one transfer negotiations with Fenerbahce.

–    OlympiqueMarseille has offered 10 million euro to Fenerbahce player Ismail Yuksek.

–    Besiktas are interested to transfer Lille player Mohamed Bayo.

–    Galatasaray are interested to transfer Genk player Carlos Cuesta.

–    BeijingGuoan are close to make transfer deal with Basaksehirspor player Shaocong Wu

–    Fenerbahce are interested to transfer Trabzonspor player Eren Elmali.

–    AlShabab are interested to transfer Trabzonspor player Poyraz Efe Yildirim.

–    Fenerbahce player Anderson Talisca salary will be 15.5 million euro for 1.5 year.

–    Galatasaray are close to loan Milan player Alvaro Morata

–    Lecce are interested to transfer Galatasaray player Victor Nelsson.

–    Genoa has made loan deal with Besiktas player Jean Onana