Mass brawls near Maribor – Fenerbahçe; Tadic and Szymanski score


Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 10:48 PM• Jonathan van Haaster

Fenerbahçe will be the opponent of FC Twente in the play-offs of the Conference League. The team of coach Ismail Kartal won 3-1 against NK Maribor last week and the team managed to defend that lead. In Slovenia, the team won 0-3 thanks to Irfan Can Kahveci, Sebastian Szymanski and Dusan Tadic. The biggest topic of conversation afterwards is the riots in the stands in the second half. After disagreements between fans of both teams, massive brawls broke out in the stands. After the break, Szymanski made a wonderful shot and Tadic scored the final score with a controlled slide.

Fenerbahçe, with Tadic, Ferdi Kadioglu and Jayden Oosterwolde in the base, was largely the boss in Slovenia and took the lead after more than fifteen minutes. Tadic handed the ball over to Michy Batshuayi, who had an excellent cross at the far post. There, Kahveci was ready to finish with a nice volley: 0-1. Tadic thought to double the score, but his bet ended up against the post via a defender. Maribor, where Josip Ilicic came on after an hour, had the perfect opportunity to do something back from a penalty kick. Arnel Jakupovic, however, encountered Irfan Can Egribayat.

Shortly after the break, the goalkeeper was thrown an object by the Maribor fans behind his goal. Egribayat threw the object back, after which the situation seemed to get out of hand for a while. However, it ended with a fizzle, after Tadic, among others, rushed to the goalkeeper to keep him calm. Not long after Miha Zajc failed to decide the game by shooting hard against the crossbar from close range, things went wrong again in the stands. Fans of both teams clashed and massive brawls broke out in the stands. The referee then temporarily stopped the game, while, according to the latest reports, fans of Fenerbahçe were evicted from the stadium.

After the game resumed, Fenerbahçe quickly distanced itself from Maribor. In minute 77, Kahveci gave in to Szymanski, who put the ball well in front of his left and wonderfully hit his swipe through the inside of the post: 0-2. In addition to the former Feyenoord player, former Ajax player Tadic also ended up on the scoreboard. The Serb moved in simply but in a controlled manner on the instructions of substitute Joshua King. As a result, Fenerbahçe becomes the opponent of FC Twente in the play-offs.