Galatasaray and Randers will decide next week who will qualify for the main tournament of the Europa League. The Turkish top club took the lead on Thursday evening at Randers, the current leader of the Danish Superligaen, but in the second half the home team equalized: 1-1. Galatasaray joined Patrick van Aanholt, while Ryan Babel came in after an hour.
In recent days, Galatasaray has mainly talked about Monday’s confrontation between Marcão and Aktürkoglu. During the league match against PhD student Giresunspor (0-2 win), Marcão gave his teammate a kind of push and a blow, after which he received a red card. Although Marcão apologized a day later, he was not part of the squad for the Randers game. Aktürkoglu had ‘just’ a starting spot and was the player who opened the score after 25 minutes. The winger turned away from his opponent outside the penalty area and saw his shot deflected, leaving keeper Patrik Carlgren no chance.
Randers, with former FC Groningen and FC Emmen midfielder Simon Tibbling in the squad, had missed a huge opportunity in the fourteenth minute to take the lead himself. Goalkeeper Fernando Muslera of Galatasaray suddenly delivered the ball via a kick-off to the detached Marvin Egho, but then saved his shot from the edge of the penalty area. Next, Mostafa Mohamed’s goal was disallowed for offside, after which Egho again missed a good chance, before Aktürkoglu broke open the game with his long shot. Immediately after the goal, Randers missed another good chance of a goal via Tibbling.
In the closing stages of the first half, Galatasaray gained control and the pace slowed. Shortly after the break, Vito Hammershöy-Mistrati missed a good chance at 1-1, but the deserved equalizer came through Frederik Lauenborg. The midfielder got the ball on the five meter line in front of his feet, after an attack that arose from a long throw-in from the left wing, and scored. In the final phase, Galatasaray came close to a goal via substitute Radamel Falcao, while a mistake by Erik Marxen also almost led to the 1-2. However, it remained at 1-1, leaving everything open for next week’s return.