Gedson Fernandes, Beşiktaş

Beşiktaş closes out Turkish league season with merciless win in Bodrum

Beşiktaş closed the 2024-2025 Turkish league season by mercilessly thrashing Bodrum FK, the only team from the Turkish province of Muğla in the top league and already mathematically relegated to the second division of Turkish professional football, culminating a rather inconsistent season in which the Black Eagles have demonstrated glaring playing problems that not even a change of coach has fixed.

Mustafa Erhan Hekimoğlu opened the scoring after just 12 minutes at the modest Gray Beton Stadium in Bodrum, taking advantage of a clumsy save by the home goalkeeper, Portugal’s Diogo Sousa. It was his compatriot Gedson Fernandes who increased the deficit to 0-2 after 27 minutes with a fine header, and again Hekimoğlu, in first-half stoppage time, scored Beşiktaş’ s third when the ball bounced off the post and crossed the goal line without Sousa being able to do anything to prevent it.

It was 68 minutes into the second half when Fernandes was violently brought down in the six-yard box by Christophe Hérelle, when he was just 5 metres from goal: the referee had no hesitation and awarded a penalty, which was easily converted 2 minutes later by another Portuguese, João Mário, but with a great save by his compatriot Sousa, who missed the spot-kick by centimetres. In the final minutes, Bodrum FK wanted to give their all and had a few dangerous moves towards the Eagles’ goal, but the final score of 0-4 showed the Istanbul club’s clear superiority.

Solskjær: ‘Things didn’t go the way we wanted them to’

The result achieved in Bodrum in the final game of the Turkish Süper Lig puts a final gloss on a Beşiktaş season that has been one to forget, despite some milestones such as the derby win over Galatasaray, the only defeat that the team coached by Okan Buruk – already crowned league champions for the third year– has suffered this season.

Beşiktaş coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær himself acknowledged this to the press after the match, praising his players’ attitude in today’s game but lamenting previous results: ‘We played focused on the game. But unfortunately, when we look at the other results (in the league), things didn’t go the way we would have liked“. The team finishes the Super League season in fourth place with only 62 points, an abysmal 33 points behind the leaders, having won only 17 of 36 matches played.

After the match, Bodrum coach Jose Morais thanked players and fans and stressed that the team deserved to be in the first division, wishing good luck to a club from which he announced his farewell considering that, as a coach, he does not know the second division of Turkish football well enough to be useful to Bodrum, although he expressed his desire to stay in Turkey.

Will Mourinho still be in charge of Fenerbahçe next season?

Another of his compatriots, Mourinho, who manages a much stronger team, could also end up saying goodbye to his Turkish dream if next season does not start with some results that convince the fans of Fenerbahçe, who closes the 2024-2025 season without the Turkish Cup and without the league title… And it’s been 11 years since the Yellow Canaries won their last league title. Although they beat Konyaspor in the last round without problems, the criticism of the Istanbul team’s play continues.

Many are already calling for the resignation of the board led by Ali Koç and the Portuguese coach himself, whose days in Turkey could be numbered if he continues to make more headlines for his critics of Turkish football than for Fenerbahçe’s good results.

Results of the 38th round of the Super League

ONVO ANTALYASPOR 0 – 2 TRABZONSPOR A.Ş.

KASIMPAŞA A.Ş. 1 – 2 GÖZTEPE A.Ş.

GALATASARAY A.Ş. 2 – 0 RAMS BAŞAKŞEHİR FUTBOL KULÜBÜ

ÇAYKUR RİZESPOR A.Ş. 5 – 2 ATAKAŞ HATAYSPOR

FENERBAHÇE A.Ş. 2 – 1 TÜMOSAN KONYASPOR

CORENDON ALANYASPOR 2 – 0 NET GLOBAL SİVASSPOR

ADANA DEMİRSPOR A.Ş. 2 – 2 GAZİANTEP FUTBOL KULÜBÜ A.Ş.

REEDER SAMSUNSPOR 2 – 1 BELLONA KAYSERİSPOR

SİPAY BODRUM FK 0 – 4 BEŞİKTAŞ A.Ş.

Turkish league: standings


GPWDL GFGAGDPTS
1.GALATASARAY A.Ş. 36 30 5 1 91 31 60 95
2.FENERBAHÇE A.Ş. 36 26 6 4 90 39 51 84
3.REEDER SAMSUNSPOR 36 19 7 10 55 41 14 64
4.BEŞİKTAŞ A.Ş. 36 17 11 8 59 36 23 62
5.RAMS BAŞAKŞEHİR FUTBOL KULÜBÜ 36 16 6 14 60 56 4 54
6.İKAS EYÜPSPOR 36 15 8 13 52 47 5 53
7.TRABZONSPOR A.Ş. 36 13 12 11 58 45 13 51
8.GÖZTEPE A.Ş. 36 13 11 12 59 50 9 50
9.ÇAYKUR RİZESPOR A.Ş. 36 15 4 17 52 58 -6 49
10.KASIMPAŞA A.Ş. 36 11 14 11 62 63 -1 47
11.TÜMOSAN KONYASPOR 36 13 7 16 45 50 -5 46
12.CORENDON ALANYASPOR 36 12 9 15 43 50 -7 45
13.BELLONA KAYSERİSPOR 36 11 12 13 45 57 -12 45
14.GAZİANTEP FUTBOL KULÜBÜ A.Ş. 36 12 9 15 45 50 -5 45
15.ONVO ANTALYASPOR 36 12 8 16 37 62 -25 44
16.SİPAY BODRUM FK 36 9 10 17 26 43 -17 37
17.NET GLOBAL SİVASSPOR 36 9 8 19 44 60 -16 35
18.ATAKAŞ HATAYSPOR 36 6 8 22 47 74 -27 26
19.ADANA DEMİRSPOR A.Ş. 36 3 5 28 34 92 -58 2