Two former Manchester United managers may have thought they were bystanders in the race for the Turkish Super Lig this season as unbeaten Galatasaray were six points clear going into this weekend’s game.
That was until Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Besiktas became the first side to beat the champions with a 2-1 win on Saturday.
Besiktas were never in the title race – a reason why the Norwegian Solskjaer got the job in January, but Jose Mourinho had already moved to Turkey at the start of the season, tasked with leading Fenerbahce to a first title since 2014. Mourinho will be delighted that Solskjaer’s team triumphed, opening up a title race.
“A very good game of football,” said Solskjaer after the match played in a febrile atmosphere on the banks of the Bosphorus.
“I thought we played well the first 30 minutes until they had one man sent off. I don’t like to play against nine or 10 men, we’re better against 11 and we dropped a little bit, but when they scored we did well to dominate the game and we defended well.
“It was a fantastic team effort. Good preparations, good focus and then 100 minutes of hard work. It’s difficult and hard to beat the top teams and they are a very good team.”
After an exceptional start when he won eight of his opening ten games, Solsksjaer’s team lost two matches before the international break, one against Konyaspor.
“Football is complex,” he said. “You’re always up against an opponent – and today, we knew it’d be an open game. Look at the Konya match, it was surreal that we didn’t score.
“We spent 60 minutes inside their 18 yard box. Football can be about luck and random. But we’ve got to grow so luck doesn’t decide things.
“We can’t rely on counter attacks or luck, we need to dominate games and that takes hard work. Let’s finish the league strong and plan the next season the right way.
“My job is to improve the attack and score more goals. Our defensive record has been one of the best in the league but we don’t score enough goals”.
Besiktas scored a goal in either half from Rafa Silva and Gedson Fernandes, while both teams had a man sent off – Galatasaray’s Przemyslaw Frankowski after only 36 minutes.
Despite having Ciro Immobile, the Italian striker who is by far his best paid player, Solskjaer did not play with a striker but instead chose Rafa Silva in a false nine position.
“Ciro is important for the team, he’s a top professional who is important on and off the pitch where he has a great presence,” said Solskjaer. “But before today I had to sit down with him and explain why I left him out. It was tactical.
“I wanted to play with four players for a fluid rotation. I was a number nine and it’s the first time as a coach that I’ve played with no number nine, but we won and I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Besiktas were worthy of their win, but they are still 24 points behind the leaders. The club were seventh when Solskjaer took charge in January and he’s taken them to fourth – which would be sufficient to achieve his current aim: European football next season. Samsunspor, the team in third, lost at home making it a very good weekend for Besiktas.
Above them, Galatasaray remain six points clear at the top having played second placed Fenerbahce home and away.
Mourinho's side, who won 4-2 at Bodrum on Friday, are six points behind but have a game in hand. They also boast a slightly superior goal difference.
The leading two won’t have to wait long to size each other up again – they meet on Wednesday in the quarter-final of the Turkish Cup at Fenerbahce’s sure to be red-hot home ground. Then Galatasaray must travel to third placed Samsunspor in their next league game.
The fact Turkey’s top three teams were eliminated from European competition in the last month, leaves them free to focus on domestic matters. Besiktas, the Turkish cup holders, are at home to Goztepe in the cup quarter-finals on Thursday.
Galatasaray’s defeat could be significant since the margins for error at the top of the Turkish league are so small.
They won the title last season with an astonishing 102 points and second placed Fenerbahce got 99. That’s why Mourinho was brought in and given the task of winning a first league title since 2014.
It looked onerous from the start and Galatasaray’s 3-1 win at Fenerbahce in September gave them a comfortable lead which they’ve never let slip.
Solskjaer has yet to speak to Mourinho since he arrived in Turkey. He has no interest in becoming embroiled in any public spats and wants to focus on his own team, but the pair will come face to face on May 4 when Fenerbahce welcome Besiktas in their penultimate league game.
If they are to win the title, it will almost certainly be a game that Fenerbahce will need all three points. Yet Besiktas defeated them earlier in the season and, given what they did on Saturday, have the capabilities for another shock result.
