Lions seek consolation in tough cup encounter

After a humiliating 4-1 defeat suffered at the fancy feet of archrival Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray will be seeking consolation in the Fortis Turkish Cup tonight, playing against solid Kayserispor.

Galatasaray came in as the slight favorites for Sunday’s big Turkcell Super League derby at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium but was knocked down by four goals in the end. With its morale on the ground, Galatasaray will try to turn its form around at the ground where it plays best Ğ the Ali Sami Yen Stadium.

Playing on its own ground, Galatasaray is unbeaten this year, both in Europe and the league. It won two of its three games in the European cup and it was even better in the Turkish league, with four wins in five games. Furthermore, it is on a goal spree at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, with 20 goals in only eight games.  Now that it needs to overcome its erratic form, only a win over Kayseri will help the Lions pick up the pieces again.

No pushover

However, Kayserispor is not exactly a pushover. Last year’s Fortis Turkish Cup winner hopes to defend its title and needs to take at least a point in the clash in Istanbul, as it failed to win against Altay in the opening match. Considering other top two spots, candidate Ankaraspor is on four points recently, with one won against Galatasaray two weeks ago. Kayserispor needs to perform well today in order not to be left far behind.

Ankaraspor continued its stunning form, which helped the team from the capital city win its last seven of eight games in the cup, beating Malatyaspor 4-2 yesterday.

A brace of goals from Senegalese Madiou Konate led Ankaraspor to victory against the League One side, while Anıl Taşdemir and Hürriyet Güçer scored the other goals. Ergun Cengiz and Eren Özen scored the goals for Malatyaspor.  Ankaraspor tops Group B ahead of tonight’s Galatasaray-Kayserispor clash.

Another Turkcell Super League side, Eskişehirspor, was not as successful as Ankaraspor yesterday, as it failed to win over League Two leader Tokatspor.  Eskişehirspor was recently praised for its solid displays against title hopefuls Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in the league, but it was held to a 1-1 draw against the third-tier team in the Group D clash.

Meanwhile, Gaziantepspor has not lost too much sweat beating local neighboring team, Gaziantep Municipality, 3-1. Gaziantepspor struck three goals after the minnow League One team was left with ten men after Ferit Cömert’s early red card.

Gaziantepspor, alongside Beşiktaş, is not highly touted for a place in the Fortis Turkish Cup quarterfinals after both sides are on six points after two games in Group A.

In the opening game of the Fortis Turkish Cup’s second match day, Beşiktaş beat Turkish League leader Trabzonspor 2-1, thanks to a last minute header by defender Tomas Zapotocny. Beşiktaş coach Mustafa Denizli said Trabzonspor played attacking football from the start to the finish, but he was happy that his side won in the end.

"They were the dominant side, although they could not create many chances," said Denizli after the game at the Avni Aker Stadium in Trabzon. "We played rationally. We did not have many goal chances but we had some good counter attacks and those were enough for us."