 |
Antalya Scorpions burst Fener bubble, advance to Turkish Cup quarterfinals
The Turkish Cup lived up to this expectation on Monday night as “Şifo” Mehmet’s Antalyaspor Scorpions stung and stunned the visiting Fenerbahçe Yellow Canaries 4-3 in a seven-goal thriller in their Turkish Cup Group A encounter at the Atatürk Stadium.
Going into this match, the Fener Canaries were undefeated with nine maximum points from three cup outings and had already qualified for the quarterfinals.
Antalyaspor had four points from two games and therefore had to make the seemingly impossible possible by beating the “mighty” Canaries to qualify for the quarters.
But impossibility does not exist when the Turkish Cup is at issue and so the Scorpions rose to the occasion on Monday night, outclassed and outscored the Canaries, put an end to their three-game winning streak and guaranteed themselves a berth in the last eight.
Thrilling encounter
In the most exciting cup match this season, Brazilian captain-playmaker Alex De Souza opened scoring for the Canaries in the 17th minute but midfielder Yalçın Ayhan evened things up for the Scorpions four minutes later as the two teams went to their dressing rooms tied at 1-1.
After the break, Galatasaray reject Necati Ateş scored a brace in the 51st and 65th to give Antalyaspor a 3-1 lead. But goals by rising Fener star Özer Hurmacı in the 73rd and Spain striker Dani Gonzalez Güiza made the score 3-3. However, bulky 26-year-old Ivorian striker Serge Djiehoua scored for Antalya in the 88th minute, putting the game beyond reach.
Interestingly, though, the Fenerbahçe Yellow Canaries have completed their cup matches but Antalyaspor still has an away game in hand against already relegated Altay on Jan. 27. If the Scorpions win that match, they will then finish as group leaders.
And Antalya coach “Şifo” Mehmet is already gloating. “Our paramount aim was to reach the quarterfinals,” he said. “Having accomplished that, we have to raise the bar and try to finish as group leaders. And this is an achievable task,” he added.
For his part, Fener German coach Christoph Daum was gracious in defeat. “Both teams played offensively, and it was a match that could have gone either way,” he said. “There were signs of match-weariness, but overall my players gave it their all,” he further stated.
As a reminder, the Canaries have not won the Turkish Cup since 1983 and there is nothing concrete to suggest that that jinx will be broken this season.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ARZU KAYA URANLI |  |
||
| On Memorial Day a few words to make your day memorable | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| Critical months for Egypt | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| Qualities of power | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Europe can’t have it all. Or can it? | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| MELİH ARAT |  |
||
| Handmade | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
