Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe win league openers, Galatasaray fumbles

ISTANBUL

DHA photo

Spor Toto Super League title hopefuls Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe have had winning starts to the season, while defending champion Galatasaray was forced to settle for a draw.

Beşiktaş hammered Mersin İdmanyurdu 5-2 on Aug. 16, while Fenerbahçe beat 10-man Eskişehirspor 2-0 at home in the first game of the 2015-2016 season on Aug. 14, thanks to goals from Moussa Sow and Brazilian center forward Fernandao, who joined the club from Bursaspor in the off season.

Galatasaray, meanwhile, fought hard to come back from a two-goal deficit at Sivasspor, but second half goals from striker Burak Yılmaz and new signing Lukas Podolski were only enough to grab a draw.

In Mersin, Beşiktaş took the lead in the ninth minute as Turkish striker Cenk Tosun scored. Eleven minutes later Mersin İdmanyurdu’s Burkinese winger Prejuce Nakoulma scored the equalizer. 

Near the end of the first half Cenk Tosun put his side ahead again and added another one in the 68th minute to complete a hat trick.

Five minutes later midfielder Olcay Şahan put the ball in the back of the net to make things easier for the visiting side.

Mersin İdmanyurdu found a goal through winger Nakoulma one minute from the final whistle, however, Kerim Frei scored Beşiktaş’s fifth goal to give the club’s fans something to cheer about.

It was the first time Beşiktaş had scored five goals in a league opener.

Beşiktaş coach Şenol Güneş was happy with the victory, but still saw some room for improvement.

“It is good to win our first away game, I congratulate my players who put themselves out there and deserved the victory,” the experienced coach said during a post-game press conference.

Güneş noted the Beşiktaş players made some easy mistakes to give their opponents scoring chances.
“We have done good things on the offensive side, but we had some mistakes,” he added.

“This is only the first game, so we should work on these. We are not perfect. We have done some good things, but we should definitely be better.”

Elsewhere in the Spor Toto Super League, Cameroonian star Samuel Eto’o scored twice in his debut for Antalyaspor as his side won 3-2 at Başakşehir on Aug. 15. 

Also on Aug. 15, Trabzonspor won 1-0 at home against Bursaspor.

In Aug. 16’s games, 10-man Gaziantepspor was thrashed 3-0 at home by Kasımpaşa, newcomer Osmanlıspor was held to a 1-1 home draw by Kayserispor and Konyaspor and Akhisar Belediye shared the spoils with one goal each.