Saturday, January 22, 2022 at 13:43• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk

Besiktas lost expensive points in the Süper Lig on Saturday. The team of trainer Onder Karaveli had to settle for a point at Yeni Malatyaspor: 1-1. The final score remained hanging and strangling upright against the reigning national champion, who has fifteen points less than Trabzonspor. The frontrunner also has one less duel in his legs.

The first sixty minutes did not yield a goal, but the teams of Marius Sumudica and Karaveli certainly had a view. A strong shot by Michy Batshuayi went just wide of the post and a few minutes later a powerful effort by Mustafa Eskihellac on behalf of the home side hit the post. The downer in the first half of Besiktas was Josef’s retirement just before half-time: he was replaced by Atiba Hutchinson.

Besiktas were close to 0-1 in the first fifteen minutes after the break via Ridvan Yilmaz and again Batshuayi, but it was ultimately Alex Teixeira who broke the spell after 61 minutes with a nice bet. Emirhan Ilkhan could have ended the game more than fifteen minutes later. However, the substitute’s effort ended on the aluminum and that turned out to be an expensive miss.

Referee Zorbay Küçük was alerted by the VAR eight minutes before the end that a fall in the penalty area of ​​Yeni Malatyaspor was indeed a penalty. Adem Büyük did not fail face to face with Ersin Destanoglu: 1-1. Things were not going well for Besiktas in the final minutes.

Domagoj Vida’s header cleared the crossbar, Batshuayi’s rebound hit the outside of the post and goalkeeper Ertac Özbir made an excellent save in extra time on a Miralem Pjanic header from close range. No club in the Süper Lig has aimed the ball more often than Besiktas this season than Besiktas: fourteen times, just like Gaziantep FK.