Fener hopes to avoid another Pendik shock

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

In this file photo, fans protest Fener players after the Pendik loss.

Fenerbahçe hopes to avoid another upset against Pendikspor when the two teams meet tonight, 13 years after the biggest shock in the history of the Ziraat Turkish Cup.

Holder Fenerbahçe hosts its minnow Istanbul neighbor in the round of 32 in the domestic cup competition. A meeting between a giant and a third-tier club is usually not a big event, but not in this case. Pendikspor beat Fenerbahçe 2-1 in the third round of the Turkish Cup in 1999 to record arguably the biggest-ever shock in the competition.

On Dec. 14, 1999, Pendikspor rallied to beat Fenerbahçe 2-1 to deliver a punch that the Istanbul giants did not see coming. Following the game, then-Fenerbahçe coach Zdenek Zeman reportedly filed his resignation but Chairman Aziz Yıldırım did not accept it.

Following the game, some Fenerbahçe fans invaded the club’s training facilities at Dereağzı and attacked Rüştü Reçber, who was arriving at the premises in his car, producing one of the most lasting images of that era.

The defeat went down as a step in Fenerbahçe’s “Turkish cup curse,” which lasted for 29 years before last May, when the Yellow Canaries ended their jinx and won the title.

The game at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium starts at 8:30 p.m.

Also today, Medical Park Antalyaspor visits Tavşanlı Linyitspor, Göztepe meets Orduspor, Adanaspor takes on 1461 Trabzon and Beşiktaş hosts MKE Ankaragücü.