Besiktas made no mistake in the Süper Lig on Saturday. The list leader of the Turkish league was 3-1 too strong for Kayserispor in-house and with that, with five match days to go, has a six-point lead over Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, which will play against Kasimpasa on Sunday. At the same time, Galatasaray booked a very difficult victory over Antalyaspor and is also doing good business in the race for a Champions League ticket. After all, that is only reserved for numbers one and two. The numbers three and four have to accept the preliminary round of the Conference League tournament.
Besiktas – Kayserispor 3-1
The first thirteen minutes of the game between Besiktas and Kayserispor were absolutely there. After four minutes it was already 1-0: after a one-two between Gökhan Töre and Adem Ljajic, the latter was knocked out and referee Cüneyt Çakir pointed to the spot. Rachid Ghezzal sent goalkeeper Dogan Alemdar into the wrong corner. Two minutes later it was already right again: after a pass from Denis Alibec from the left, Pedro Henrique got far too much freedom in the penalty area and he shot the ball in the right corner behind Ersin Destanoglu.
It was Besiktas who then took the lead again. Georges-Kevin N’Koudou received the ball in the penalty area from Ljajic, made room for a shot and aimed the ball low and diagonally into the right corner: 2-1. The Frenchman also took 3-1 after 65 minutes of play: after a wonderful pass from Ghezzal towards the far post, he worked the ball from close range behind Alemdar. Kevin Luckassen participated in the last fifteen minutes with the visitors.
Ghezzal delivered a special performance with his fifteenth assist of the season. In the past ten seasons in the Süper Lig, only four players have reached (at least) such a number before: Cicinho in 2013/14, Wesley Sneijder in 2016/17 and Edin Visca in 2017/18.
Antalyaspor – Galatasaray 0-1
The teams of Ersun Yanal and Fatih Terim were evenly matched for an hour, but an under-match situation unbalanced the game. Lukas Podolski was already yellow when he did not hold back in a few duels and in the end he had to pay for a foul on Sener Özbayrakli with a second yellow card against his ex-employer. It was only his first red card in Turkish football for the German.
With one man more, the 0-1 was in the air. A bet by Mostafa Mohamed on the right post heralded the opening goal in the 77th minute. The Egyptian brought in the ball in one go after a good attack from the right: 0-1. Ömer Bayram and Ryan Donk were in the starting line-up; Ryan Babel came in for Halil Dervisoglu shortly after the 0-1.
| No. | Team | M. | W. | G. | V. | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Besiktas | 35 | 23 | 6 | 6 | 39 | 75 |
| 2 | Galatasaray | 35 | 21 | 6 | 8 | 34 | 69 |
| 3 | Fenerbahçe | 34 | 21 | 6 | 7 | 27 | 69 |
| 4 | Trabzonspor | 36 | 17 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 63 |
| 5 | Alanyaspor | 35 | 16 | 7 | 12 | 16 | 55 |
| 6 | Hatayspor | 35 | 15 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 54 |
| 7 | Sivasspor | 35 | 12 | 16 | 7 | 7 | 52 |
| 8 | Gaziantep BB | 34 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 51 |
| 9 | Fatih Karagümrük | 35 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 7 | 50 |
| 10 | Göztepe | 35 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 47 |
| 11 | Konyaspor | 35 | 10 | 12 | 13 | -3 | 42 |
| 12 | Rizespor | 35 | 10 | 12 | 13 | -11 | 42 |
| 13 | Antalyaspor | 36 | 9 | 15 | 12 | -12 | 42 |
| 14 | Ankaragücü | 34 | 10 | 8 | 16 | -12 | 38 |
| 15 | Yeni Malatyaspor | 34 | 8 | 13 | 13 | -6 | 37 |
| 16 | Kasımpaşa | 35 | 9 | 10 | 16 | -14 | 37 |
| 17 | Medipol Basaksehir | 34 | 9 | 9 | 16 | -16 | 36 |
| 18 | Kayserispor | 35 | 8 | 11 | 16 | -19 | 35 |
| 19 | Gençlerbirligi | 35 | 9 | 8 | 18 | -25 | 35 |
| 20 | BB Erzurumspor | 35 | 8 | 10 | 17 | -22 | 34 |
| 21 | Denizlispor | 35 | 6 | 10 | 19 | -27 | 28 |