Fenerbahçe claims historic victory against Man United

İstanbul club Fenerbahçe managed to beat all expectations and beat Manchester United 2-1 at home in a Europa League Group A game late on Nov. 3. Having lost 4-1 two weeks ago in Manchester, Fenerbahçe produced a stunning performance capped by a brilliant Moussa Sow bicycle-kick goal and a Jeremain Lens free-kick.  Wayne Rooney managed to pull a goal back to create a tense final few minutes but it did nothing to brighten a miserable night for United.  Fenerbahçe currently sits atop Group A standings with seven points in four matches. Dutch team Feyenoord is in second place on goal difference, while Manchester United is in third with six points. Fenerbahçe coach Dick Advocaat praised his players after the game. “Tonight, we did what’s needed to be done both on the defense and with the ball,” the experienced Duct coach said. “When we had the goal we were not scared to attack. We scored two but could have had four or five. My players deserved the victory and the praise.” Advocaat also thanked the Fenerbahçe fans for their support.

 Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, said that his side had been caught “sleeping” and had failed to heed his warnings over the toughness of playing away matches in Istanbul. “What disappointed me more is I have quite a big experience of playing against Turkish teams,” 

said the former Real Madrid and Chelsea boss. “I passed all my experience. Play against them in our home is easy... you come to Turkey and it’s completely different. “I told them to wait for that and not be focused on the game we had at home. “But we started the game sleeping. They start at 100mph; we start really slow.

 They go immediately in there, we are sleeping we don’t react and then the game is a different story. It is our fault that we let them be in front. We didn’t deserve [to win].” United also suffered a major blow with Paul Pogba limping off injured and Mourinho lamented that no yellow card had been given for the challenge on the French star. “I only know that that the first two fouls [on Fenerbahçe players] got two yellow cards... the foul on Pogba that brought him out of the game was not a yellow card.” Mourinho said he did not know yet the extent of the injury to Pogba. In another surprise score, Ankara club Osmanlıspor won 2-1 at Villareal in a roup L game. Pierre Webo put the visiti,ng side ahead in the ninth minute, while Villareal’s Rodrigo Hernandez scored the equalizer three minutes into the second half. Raul Rusescu scored the winner in the 73rd mminute, two minutes after he replaced Webo. With the vitory, Osmanlıspor moved two clears atop Group L standings,  with FC Zurich and Villaral trailing on five points.  The third Turkish club in the Europa League competition, Konyaspor, lost 3-1 at Braga. Also on Nov. 3, Southampton closed in on a place in the knockout rounds as it came from behind to beat coachless Inter Milan 2-1 at a packed St Mary’s.

Inter travelled to England without a coach after sacking Frank de Boer on Nov. 1. Stefano Vecchi took interim charge and saw his side go in front just after the half-hour mark when Mauro Icardi converted the loose ball after Cuco Martina had blocked from Ivan Perisic. Southampton could have leveled in first-half stoppage time, but after Perisic handled in the area, Dusan Tadic’s penalty was saved by Samir Handanovic. However, Southampton came roaring back in the second half. Skipper Virgil van Dijk equalized on 64 minutes, finishing after an Oriol Romeu flick came back off the bar. And the winner arrived in fortuitous fashion six minutes later when a Tadic cross from the left was deflected through to the back post where Yuto Nagatomo turned the ball into his own net. Southampton is second in the group, two points behind Sparta Prague, which won 2-0 at home to Hapoel Beer-Sheva.