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 1st half as it did find great goal with En Nesyri and also during start of 2nd 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 14th 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 1st 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 2nd 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 9th spot to 14th 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 23rd 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 78th 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
