Fener forces its bid in the title race

The weekend's highlight lived up to its tag, with the two teams thinking about getting into attack as fast as they could. For Fenerbahçe, which was eight points behind Sivas going into the game, the win was badly needed. But despite this urgency, the first goal came from Sivasspor.

Sivasspor's top scorer Mehmet Yıldız opened the account in the second minute, but that strike was canceled out two minutes later when Fener winger Uğur Boral equalled.

After a ridiculously fast start with two goals in five minutes, the tempo did not miss a beat. Sivasspor took the lead again in the 24th minute with Murat Sözgelmez, but again, Fenerbahçe did not waste much time to respond, and Semih Şentürk scored three minutes later to make the score 2-2.

Uğur Boral took the stage again and gave Fenerbahçe the lead for the first time in the game in the 34th minute. Then, Fener never looked back.

Fenerbahçe managed to control the game in the second half, and it was defender Diego Lugano in the 77th minute to make the score 4-2. Strangely, that goal helped Lugano top his striker teammates in number of goals scored. The Uruguayan defender has six goals this season, while two former top scorers are left behind. Defending Turkish top goal scorer, Semih, has five goals, while last year's top scorer in the Spanish League, Daniel Güiza, has only four goals so far.

A result that will change Chairman Yıldırım's mind

The result came much to the satisfaction of Fenerbahçe coach Luis Aragones. "I think we changed our chairman's thoughts," said Aragones, refering to Aziz Yıldırım's article on the club's official magazine.

"Our team's performance is not promising for the future," Yıldırım had said in the article.

"Yes we may have lost some points, and I think that comment was natural," said Aragones. "But I believe we will chase the title till the last minute. I believe in my team and think the chairman changed his mind after the game."

Coach Bülent Uygun, whose Sivasspor has seen its 11-game unbeaten streak broken, took the blame for the loss.

"It may be the atmosphere, or may be the big game stress, but my players could not play like they used to," Uygun said. "But I am the one to blame for that. Maybe if I could come up with different plans, we would not experience such a defeat. So I apologize to our fans for the mistake I made."