Lions laugh last and loudest in the ‘mother of all derbies´

todays zaman

The Galatasaray Lions outplayed, outclassed and outscored eternal foe Fenerbahçe in the “mother of all derbies” in week 14 of the Spor Toto Super League at the Türk Telekom Arena on Wednesday, winning comfortably 3-1 to upset Turkish football´s “established order” and take the lead in the league for the first time in 59 weeks.

The Lions last beat Fenerbahçe in the league on April 27, 2008 at Ali Sami Yen Stadium, with DR Congo international striker Shabani Nonda scoring the only goal of the match.

Since then in the seven matches in three-and-a-half-years -- or 1,319 days -- Galatasaray never tasted victory over the Canaries. Fenerbahçe won five matches and two matches ended in draws.

But all that came to an abrupt end on Wednesday when Fatih Terim´s Lions ran riot to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to Aykut Kocaman and his Canaries that “what goes up must come down.”

Terim surprised football pundits in this country by benching experienced defenders Servet Çetin and Gökhan Zan in this high stakes game and starting with and 20-year-old center back Semih Kaya and 20-year-old winger Emre Çolak. And these rising stars did not let their coach or their fans down.

‘Striker´ Eboue again on target  ,

Cote d´Ivoire all-rounder Emmanuel Eboue opened the scoring for the Lions in the 33rd minute, beating Fenerbahçe´s Nigerian defender Joseph Yobo neat and clear before whacking the ball the ball past keeper Volkan Demirel into the back of the net. It is worthy to note that Eboue scored the only goal of the match in Galatasaray´s away victory over Gençlerbirliği in week 13

Sweden superstar Johan Erik Calvin Elmander, arguably the best player on the pitch on Wednesday, doubled the score for the Lions in the 41st. Felipe Melo scored in the 66th from a corner taken by Selçuk İnan to make the score 3-0, while Fener captain-playmaker Alex de Souza´s consolation goal in the second minute of stoppage time (92nd) reduced the tally to 3-1.

“No empire lasts for ever,” they say. And so Terim and his rampaging Lions brought the pseudo “Fenerbahçe Republic” down to earth with a bump.

Kocaman sad, Terim happy

“It was a well-deserved victory by Galatasaray,” Kocaman said. “We lost too much possession of the ball and made too many mistakes. We ought to have taken the game to Galatasaray, but allowed them take the game to us,” he lamented.

Terim was ecstatic, so were his players and the fans, who were singing songs of glory on the stands during and after the match. The Fenerbahçe Yellow Canaries, who had thought that beating Galatasaray was their birth right, were disappointed this time around as they left the Arena with their heads bowed.

“I said when I took over that I was going to form a team that was going to make the Galatasaray followers proud,” Terim noted after the match.

“And we are working in this direction, but there are still several wrongs to be righted. We have gone to the top of the table, that´s all. There are the playoffs and so finishing as leader [at the end of regulation season] does not really mean much,” he further said.

“The derby [or mother of all derbies] passed in gentlemanlike manner. No objects were thrown onto the pitch and we treated our opponent [Fenerbahçe] very hospitably. They are our friends anywhere and everywhere; sometimes we beat them and sometimes they beat us,” he added.

Fenerbahçeliyim  (I am a Fenerbahce supporter)

Ama bu futbol maçı harikaydı. (But this football match was fantastic)

If Fenerbahce´s goalkeeper Volkan didn´t have a great match, the score would have been even worse.

Watch the match highlights here.

I read somewhere that no Fenerbahce supporters could be at the stadium, to stop violence at football matches. Unfortunately, it (the match) doesn´t have the same atmosphere without opposing fans, but if it makes the stadium safer, then maybe that´s good too.

Evet, maç harikaydı ! [ Yes, the match was great [fantastic] ! ]

Geçmiş olsun Henry !

I can understand your excitement, hocam