Lions seek 4th win in a row

atasaray will look to extend its winning streak to four games when it opens the seventh match day of the Spor Toto Super League season at Medical Park Antalyaspor tonight.

The Lions have shaken off a poor start to the new season in which they only posted one win in the first three match days, but three consecutive victories since then have put Fatih Terim’s team near the top of the division.

Galatasaray is now on 13 points and shares second with Istanbul BB, trailing only defending champion Fenerbahçe, which has 16 points and is the only unbeaten team in the league.

Swedish forward Johan Elmander said the team wanted to continue its good run.

“We are on a good streak now and we want to keep it going,” he told GSTV, the club’s official television channel. “The win over Bursaspor was a good one. And we want another win over Medical Park Antalyaspor.”

Galatasaray got a late goal to beat 2010 champion Bursaspor last week, helping the team build confidence. In the previous four games against the Marmara club, Galatasaray failed to record a victory and even failed to score against the Crocs for two years.

Probably more important for Galatasaray was that the team returned to its past glory, which seemed to be absent last season. A shadow of the team they once were, the Lions broke the undesirable club record for most defeats in a single season last year. A late surge saw the team barely climb to eighth place, which was no consolation for the 17-time titleholders.

Elmander, who has two league goals for Galatasaray in five appearances, said the match against the Mediterranean side would not be an easy one.

“I haven’t seen them play but I know that it will be a hard one,” he said. “But whoever the opponent is, we are Galatasaray. And a big team like Galatasaray aims at nothing less than the title. If we want the trophy we should overcome the obstacles.”

Medical Park Antalyaspor is a tough team that concedes few goals, but is not particularly strong on offense. The southerners have only scored five goals and allowed eight so far this season. The team has also failed to win its last four matches after starting the season with two wins.

Antalyaspor is coached by Mehmet Özdilek, who was an assistant to Terim when he was the national team coach in 2005-2006.