Hip Shot Babel ushers in Galatasaray’s victory; Ghezzal shines for Besiktas

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 9:31 PM• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 21:33

Besiktas and Galatasaray booked tight victories in the Süper Lig on Wednesday. The team of trainer Sergen Yalçin almost gave up a 0-3 lead against Rizespor, while Galatasaray could only get rid of Konyaspor in the final phase: 1-0. Besiktas thus retains, with four match days to go, a six-point lead over Galatasaray in the league table: 78 at 72. City rival Fenerbahçe also has 72 points, but will still be in action on Thursday when they visit Alanyaspor.

Rizespor – Besiktas 2-3
Yalçin’s team scored three runs in the first half in the Yeni Rize Sehir Stadium, but only the first direct hit after fifteen minutes of play appeared on the scoreboard. After a wonderful action by Rachid Ghezzal on the right side of the penalty area, a solo by two men, Georges-Kévin Nkoudou shot the ball in from close range: 0-1. It was already his sixteenth assist of the Süper Lig season for Ghezzal and goal number seven for Nkoudou, the highest number in one season in his career.

Adem Ljajic, a few minutes later, and Atiba Hutchinson, just before the break, also got the ball behind goalkeeper Gökhan Akkan. However, the VAR pointed out to referee Abdulkadir Bitigen that there was offside in both situations. Besiktas doubled the advantageous margin after less than an hour of play. Gökhan Töre got the ball from Welinton, escaped to the right, entered the penalty area and aimed the leather in the far corner behind Akkan. Besiktas’ response on Twitter, ‘We scored a goal that was not disallowed by the VAR’, was telling and got thousands of likes.

Fifteen minutes before the end, Ghezzal scored the 0-3. The tastemaker approached the penalty area from the right and beautifully shot the ball with the left in the left corner outside Akkan’s reach: 0-3. An important goal, as Rizespor scored twice in the final phase via a free kick by Ismail Köybasi and a header by Damjan Djokovic. Oguzhan Özyakup was missing from Besiktas due to injuries.

Galatasaray 1-0 Konyaspor
Galatasaray won no less than fifteen of the nineteen Süper Lig duels with Konyaspor and drew four times, but on Wednesday evening Fatih Terim’s team had a tough job with the number twelve. The decision only came a few minutes before time, when base force Ryan Donk had already been ordered to take place in the attack. Goalkeeper Ibrahim Sehic blundered with the well-known hip shot of Ryan Babel, who came in at half time, after which Emre Akbaba, who also came in, was able to shoot the ball in from close range: 1-0. Ömer Bayram was on the field for ninety minutes, just like Donk.

No. Team M. W. G. V. +/- Pnt
1 Besiktas 35 23 6 6 39 75
2 Galatasaray 36 22 6 8 35 72
3 Fenerbahçe 35 22 6 7 28 72
4 Trabzonspor 37 17 13 7 11 64
5 Hatayspor 36 16 9 11 16 57
6 Alanyaspor 36 16 8 12 16 56
7 Sivasspor 35 12 16 7 7 52
8 Gaziantep BB 35 13 12 10 8 51
9 Fatih Karagümrük 36 13 12 11 7 51
10 Göztepe 36 12 12 12 3 48
11 Antalyaspor 37 9 16 12 -12 43
12 Konyaspor 36 10 12 14 -4 42
13 Rizespor 35 10 12 13 -11 42
14 Yeni Malatyaspor 35 9 13 13 -5 40
15 Ankaragücü 35 10 8 17 -13 38
16 Kayserispor 36 9 11 16 -16 38
17 Kasımpaşa 36 9 10 17 -15 37
18 Medipol Basaksehir 35 9 10 16 -16 37
19 BB Erzurumspor 36 9 10 17 -21 37
20 Gençlerbirligi 36 9 8 19 -27 35
21 Denizlispor 36 6 10 20 -30 28