On a cold Istanbul night, the Turkish Cup delivered an unforgettable derby, yet again, contested between city rivals Besiktas and Fenerbahce.
Just five days after meeting in the same stadium for a Turkish Super Lig match, the two fierce rivals met again tonight — however, this time, it was in the first-leg of the Turkish Cup semi-final. The previous meeting finished a 3-1 win for Besiktas and it seemed like Fenerbahce had come to seek revenge.
The match started off calm but quickly got heated after the first two goals. Alvaro Negredo gave Besiktas the lead in the 14th minuted to make the score 1-0 before Roberto Soldado of Fenerbahce equalized for his team just 3 minutes later. As the first-half was coming to an end, the tensions quickly escalated as players from both sides began to argue after seemingly every corner kick, throw in or foul. Fenerbahce’s Alper Potuk saw his first yellow card in the 39th minute for a rough tackle on Caner Erkin and five minutes later received his second yellow for unsportsmanlike conduct, sending him off before the half-time whistle.
That wasn’t the end of the first-half, though, as Fener’s Sener Ozbayrakli scored in the added time to make it 2-1 for his team. Controversial goalkeeper Volkan Demirel ran across the field and celebrated in front of the opposition fans by sliding on his knees and doing several celebratory gestures, a move which the referee found to be worthy of a booking.
The drama continued in the second-half and in the 52nd minute Besiktas winger Ricardo Quaresma received a direct red card for violent conduct. Replays showed Quaresma elbowing Fenerbahce’s Josef in the face in retaliation for poking him in the eye. Quaresma had just come on as a substitute in the second half, 7 minutes prior to the incident.
With both teams down a man, the match continued to deteriorate as fouls were committed by both sides and were constantly interrupting the flow of the match. By the end of it all, Besiktas had committed 14 fouls compared to Fenerbahce’s 21, for a total of 35.
In the 76th minute, Fenerbahce’s goalkeeper Volkan Demirel ran towards the referee to complain about a foul on his teammate after Ryan Babel of Besiktas attempted to head the ball inside the penalty box from a Talisca cross. The referee had seemed to have had enough of Volkan’s antics by this point and issued him a second yellow card, which meant an early shower for the goalkeeper. Fener’s manager Kocaman quickly substituted an outofield player, Aatif, for their other goalkeeper Carlos Kameni. At this point, Fenerbahce were down to just 9 men.
In the 82nd minute, Besiktas star Talisca scored from a Caner Erkin cross to make the score 2-2. The match had no more goals after this point but certainly plenty more drama as the scuffles continued until the very end of extra time, of which there were 10 minutes.
Another Istanbul derby which delivered an unforgettable match. One can only imagine what’s in store for the second-leg of the Turkish Cup semi-final.