Beşiktaş beat Fenerbahçe 1–2 in Kadıköy after coming from behind following the home side’s opening goal, in the first major derby of the Turkish Super League season. Vincenzo Italiano’s side took all three points in a fiercely contested match played at the Chobani Stadium in Istanbul.
The home side got off to a somewhat shaky start, but managed to take the lead in the 26th minute following a throw-in taken by Archie Brown, which the Beşiktaş defence failed to clear, allowing Milan Škriniar to capitalise on the opportunity and slot the ball into the back of the net.
The euphoria among the Yellow Canaries supporters, however, did not last long. Beşiktaş reacted and equalised in the 38th minute, when Rıdvan Yılmaz, following a pass from Leandro Trossard, finished off a move started down the left flank with a shot across goal. The first half ended with the score level.
After the restart, the Black Eagles created several chances and eventually found the winning goal in the 73rd minute. Olaitan launched a swift attack and found Orkun Kökçü, who, noticing that goalkeeper Ederson had come off his line, laid the ball off to Dušan Vlahović, allowing the striker to slot the ball into an empty net, thus sealing the final score at 1–2.
Ismail Kartal’s first defeat in a derby against Besiktas
Fenerbahçe tried hard but failed to score the much-needed goal that would have secured at least a draw, and the first derby of the season ended for the club from the Asian side of Istanbul with a home defeat against their arch-rivals. The result, which comes on the heels of last matchday’s historic thrashing, sees Beşiktaş now on 9 points, whilst Fenerbahçe remain on 6 after the first four matchdays of the league campaign.
The defeat also marked İsmail Kartal’s first as Fenerbahçe manager in a derby against Beşiktaş. The manager had previously overseen five matches against the black-and-whites from the Kadıköy club’s dugout, recording four wins and one draw.
Fenerbahce criticise the referee’s performance and the VAR
After the match, Vincenzo Italiano highlighted his players’ resilience in one of the most demanding away fixtures of the season. “Today, the best thing was not losing after falling behind in a very difficult away fixture, not losing focus and securing the three points. I’m very pleased with this response,” said the Italian manager.
For his part, İsmail Kartal took responsibility for his team’s performance in the derby against Beşiktaş and acknowledged that Fenerbahçe had underperformed: “We played below expectations… We are solely responsible for this defeat. We take responsibility together with our coaching staff,” declared the Fenerbahçe manager, although he also expressed his dissatisfaction with some refereeing decisions; the club’s president, Aziz Yıldırım, also openly criticised the referee’s performance and that of the VAR following the defeat.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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