Saturday, August 13, 2022 at 11:16 PM• Guy Habets

Galatasaray has already dropped points in the second game of the Süper Lig season. The puny Giresunspor managed to leave Istanbul with three points in their pocket: 0-1. This marks the debut of Dries Mertens for Cim Bom fell into the water.

The Belgian, who came over from Napoli this summer on a free transfer, came in for Yunus Akgün in minute 78 and was given the chance to show himself for twelve minutes. At that moment it was already 0-1 for the guests, as Borja Sainz found the goal just seconds before the introduction of Mertens. That goal was completely against the proportions. Galatasaray was better and dominated at home but forgot to finish and that was penalized by last season’s number sixteen in Turkey.

That was not only a downer for Mertens, but also for Patrick van Aanholt and Fredrik Midtsjö. The left back from Den Bosch and the playmaker, who recently passed Gala was taken over from AZ, were in the starting line-up and could not change the score. Players such as Haris Seferovic and Sérgio Oliveira also did not make the difference and had to recognize their superiority in Giresunspor, which ultimately had the match winner within the ranks with Sainz.