Sivasspor, BeÅŸiktaÅŸ still holding on to top spots

Sivasspor and BeÅŸiktaÅŸ continued to lead the title race in the Turkcell Super League, winning over the weekend.

Leader Sivasspor beat Denizlispor 2-0, maintaining its lead atop the league Saturday, while BeÅŸiktaÅŸ continued its trail with a 1-0 win over Kayserispor. Sedat Bayrak and Herve Tum scored two first-half goals for Sivasspor, which extended its streak to 12 weeks.Â

"That was an important away game for us," said assistant coach Esat KaraberberoÄŸlu. "We could have lost the league lead here, and we are happy to have won."

While Sivasspor celebrated the win in a moderate way, BeÅŸiktaÅŸ kicked off the festivities before the win.

Big party
Hours before the team was taken to the stadium, Beşiktaş fans were ready for a big party. They lit fireworks as soon as the team’s bus neared the stadium and accompanied the vehicle, walking beside the bus. But their show forced the team to enter the stadium late, and the firework smoke disturbed the players.

It all went sour when the police used teargas to clear the streets of fans. The cause for pre-game celebrations, especially long before the end of the season, stemmed from coach Mustafa Denizli’s comments that the game would be crucial for the team. While Beşiktaş was suffering a string of bad results and the media was quick to write off the team’s title chances, Denizli defended his team, saying, "We’ll meet again on the 26th weekend."

When that day came, BeÅŸiktaÅŸ was one point behind leader Sivasspor, so coach Denizli was proven right and that was enough for BeÅŸiktaÅŸ fans to celebrate, even though it was a little violent.

"We faced the difficulties of love before the game," Denizli said. "It was an extraordinary scene for us, but we were a little tense and we arrived to the stadium in an unusual way. We spent two hours traveling down a road of one and a half kilometers."

"My players were really bothered by the smoke," he said. "If those kinds of celebrations continue, I hope it is done in a way that would not trouble our breathing."

But at the end of the day, the celebrations did not keep BeÅŸiktaÅŸ from a win.

"We see it as a nice day," Denizli said. "That was a first-time thing for us."

In the second spot, Beşiktaş is seen as a serious title contender, but Denizli says that he is not too happy with his team’s position.

"You should not be happy with the second spot," he explained. "We are not really happy, but not unhappy, either. We are coming from one step behind to find the place where we will be happy."

Then Denizli was reminded of his famous "26th week" speech.

"It is hard to make predictions in football, but the 26th and 27th weeks are going the way I predicted," Denizli said. "When I first said that, there were seven teams in the title race, and we’ll see how many teams will be left by the end of next weekend."

Trabzon held to a draw
Trabzonspor may not remain in the title race if it continues to fall. The Black Sea side was held to a goalless draw by the minnow Istanbul Municipality on Sunday. It was the team’s fourth consecutive game without a win. Coach Ersun Yanal refused to give up, despite his team’s slip to fourth.

"We have eight games ahead. This is a team that can win games again. I trust my players," Yanal said.

Meanwhile, Fenerbahçe beat Eskişehirspor 2-1 on Sunday to climb to the third spot.

Brazilian Deivid De Souza and Spanish Daniel Güiza scored two goals to lift Fenerbahçe to win a game that it was not well played.

"I did not enjoy the performance," Spanish coach Luis Aragones said. "But we were better than them in terms of goal chances and won in a just way."