A stoppage-time goal from Libyan midfielder Al-Musrati gave Beşiktaş their 11th Turkish Cup against the odds in last night’s final at Istanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium, just when it looked as if the title would have to go to extra time or – even – penalties after Trabzonspor had equalised just five minutes earlier through Pépé.
In a closely contested final, it was in fact the Black Sea team who opened the scoring after 13 minutes with a stunning goal after a solo run by Onuachu, sending their fans into absolute euphoria. It took until injury time in the first half for the Black Eagles to equalise when Rachid Ghezzal converted a penalty that the referee pointed to for handball by Bardhi.
In the second half, the Istanbul side took the lead after 54 minutes with a Salih Uçan header. In the final seconds of normal time, the Ivorian Pépé took advantage of a poor save by Günök after a corner kick to head in under the posts, tying the game.
Everything pointed to extra time, but the referee added 10 more minutes, and it was just four minutes into stoppage-time when Al-Musrati appeared with a right-footed shot on the edge of the box from a ball badly cleared by the Trabzonspor defence, beating Çakır. At that moment, the Beşiktaş players and fans erupted in jubilation, while on the pitch the Trabzonspor players lay on the ground: the final was lost.
Beşiktaş’s victory makes them win until now 11 Turkish Cups, closing the gap to the 18 won by Galatasaray, while Trabzonspor remains on nine titles. This is not in fact the first time that Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor have met in a Cup final – it is now four – but it is the first Turkish Ziraat Cup won by the new president of the Istanbul team, Hasan Arat (who took over last December) and also by their coach, Serdar Topraktepe, who has been in charge of the team since mid-season following the departure of Burak Yılmaz and, later, Fernando Santos.
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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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