Başakşehir cheerful after win over Manchester United
ISTANBUL
Turkish Süper Lig champion Başakşehir aims higher after claiming its first-ever Champions League victory against Manchester United.
Başakşehir went ahead after 12 minutes in Istanbul on Nov. 4 night when Edin Visca’s pass found Demba Ba in space at the halfway line and the striker ran forward before finishing past Dean Henderson.
The home side doubled its lead before the break when Juan Mata lost possession and Ba turned provider for Visca to score.
United reduced the deficit shortly before half-time through an Anthony Martial header.
“I have dreams, my players have dreams,” Başakşehir coach Okan Buruk told reporters after the victory.
“Our first target was to become the champion last season and play in the Champions League,” he said.
“We are in a very tough group, but I’m happy to see that we have played well in the first three games.”
Başakehir lost its first two games against RB Leipzig and Paris Saint-Germain but received some praise for the level of play the team performed.
Buruk, who was a member of the Galatasaray squad that won four Turkish league titles between 1996-2000 and the UEFA Cup in 2000, said he has always encouraged his players not to be intimidated by their rivals.
“I saw that many times during my career as a player being part of a very successful team,” he said. “The most important thing when playing a big game is to be mentally prepared.”
The result ended Manchester United’s longest away winning run in all competitions in their history, 10 straight victories, and was its first away defeat in 19 matches since losing in January at Liverpool in the Premier League.
Manchester coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer blasted “unforgivable” defending from his hapless side and said the performance against Başakşehir was not good enough.
“They scored two goals like you do in Europe when you do not defend well enough,” he told BT Sport.
“The first one is that we play a short corner and forget about the man up top. That is unforgivable. The second one as well, we are not very well organized to counter the press.”
“You don’t turn up and get three points in the Champions League,” he added. “They are a team well organized and we were not good enough. That is it.”
