Monday, May 16, 2022 at 9:05 PM• Mart van Mourik

Galatasaray booked a narrow victory in the Süper Lig on Monday evening. At home, the team of trainer Domenèc Torrent was 3-2 too strong for Adana Demirspor. The best goal of the game was scored by Mario Balotelli, who shot into the cross on behalf of the visitors with a beautiful free kick. Both Galatasaray and Vincenzo Montella’s team had nothing more at stake in the sporting field.

With Patrick van Aanholt, Ryan Babel and Halil Dervisoglu in the starting lineup, Galatasaray ran into problems early in the game. After the home team’s poor defense, Matías Vargas took over possession and gave Yunus Akgün a through ball, who scored the opening goal in the short corner. In the eleventh minute Balotelli came close to 0-2. However, with a placed shot from the corner of the box, the striker hit the bar. After half an hour of play, Galatasaray equalized thanks to a penalty kick used by Bafetimbi Gomis: 1-1. The penalty was awarded by arbiter Sarper Baris Saka after a handball into Samet Akaydin’s own box.

In the second act, Adana Demirspor’s resistance cracked. In the 55th minute of play, Babel had a nice pass to Kerem Aktürkoglu, who headed to the ground from close range and surprised the blundering goalkeeper Arijanet Muric: 2-1. The decision seemed to come eight minutes later. After an acceleration over the left flank, Aktürkoglu put the ball wide on Gomis, who was able to score the 3-1 after a good run. Balotelli gave Adana Demirspor the connecting goal with a beautiful free kick, but a draw was no longer possible.