Galatasaray beats Bursaspor to seal Turkish double

BURSA

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Turkish Spor Toto Super League champion Galatasaray has completed a domestic double after beating Bursaspor 3-2 on June 3 to win the Ziraat Turkish Cup final.

The Istanbul club’s striker Burak Yılmaz scored a hat-trick as Galatasaray sealed its first domestic double since the 1999-2000 season, winning the game 3-2.

Burak completed his treble on the hour, three minutes after Volkan Şen had made it 2-2 at the Atatürk Stadium in Bursa. Playing on its home ground, Bursaspor had taken the lead through Fernandao’s 25th-minute penalty, only for Turkey striker Burak to score either side of the break.

Burak’s hat-trick was his first in 939 days. The last time he scored three goals in an official game was on Nov. 7, 2012, against Romanian side CFR Cluj in a Champions League group game. Galatasaray won that game 3-1 away.

With the victory, Galatasaray coach Hamza Hamzaoğlu, who replaced Italian coach Cesare Prandelli in the 12th week of the season, became the first person to complete a Turkish double both as a player and a coach.
 
“We didn’t begin the game as we wanted to. We tried to make the players focus on the final over the last few days after the relaxation that winning the title brings,” Hamzaoğlu, who also became this season the first person to ever win the league title both as a player and a coach, said after the game. “This was a difficult task. Later in the match they realized what type of game they were playing in. I congratulate all of my players, but special praise goes to Burak for his goals and because he played with sacrifice tonight.”

Man of the match Burak added: “We’re very happy. Maybe people thought we would be overcome by fatigue but we showed our desire to achieve the double and it suits us really well.”

Bursaspor coach Şenol Güneş blamed the loss on the inexperience of his players, but congratulated them.

“We are all sorry tonight, but we are holding our heads up,” the former Turkish national team coach told a post-game press conference. “We tried to do the right things in terms of football the whole season. Tonight, we conceded goals from personal mistakes. My players need more experience, but they should not be sad.”

Galatasaray, which also won the cup last season, has now played 21 finals and won 16 of them, making it the club with the most Turkish Cup trophies, well ahead of Beşiktaş, which has nine.

It is the sixth time the Istanbul giant finished the season with a double.  

Bursa, who won the cup in 1987, normally would have entered the 2015-16 Europa League even with the loss as Galatasaray has already qualified for the Champions League, but the Marmara club has been banned from continental competition for four years due to “overdue payables.” In its place, Trabzonspor will enter the Europa League second qualifying round.