Denizli lives to fight another day as Eagles weather Storm

This was the situation as Trabzonspor and Beşiktaş took to the field for their crucial week 12 match at Avni Aker on Saturday night. The Storm dominated possession in the first half, but wasteful finishing by its star strikers, Umut Bulut and Gökhan Ünal, as well as superb goalkeeping by Beşiktaş’s Hakan Arıkan resulted in the first half ending exactly the way it began -- 0-0.

Depleted Eagles

Embattled Beşiktaş coach Mustafa Denizli, whose highly depleted team was walloped 3-0 by German champ VfL Wolfsburg in their UEFA Champions League match on Wednesday, knew that another debacle could mark the end of his reign at the Eagles. And even the absence of first-choice keeper Rüştü Recber, striker Nihat Kahveci, Chile leftie Rodrigo Tello, Slovakian striker Filip Holosko and teenage Turkey junior international Rıdvan Şimşek through injury -- and winger Serdar Özkan through poor form -- would not have been excuse enough to pacify the irate fans.

Denizli rings in the changes

Denizli therefore gambled at the beginning of the second half, and it paid off. The 60-year-old coach brought in midfielder Yusuf Şimşek in the 46th to replace expensive but underachieving attacking midfielder Rodrigo Barbosa Tabata, signed from Gaziantepspor this season, and İbrahim Kaş in place of libero Uğur İnceman.

And the changes worked wonders. The Eagles pushed more men forward and were rewarded after only three minutes into the second half, in the 48th to be more precise, when 30-year-old German midfielder Fabian Ernst opened the scoring with a cracker of a shot into the back of the net. Thereafter, the Storm threw everything it had at the Beşiktaş defense, but could not beat towering keeper Hakan.

Denizli also made another wise substitution in the 76th, bringing in 24-year-old Brazilian striker Deivson Rogério da Silva (Bobo) to take the place of lethargic Brazilian-Turk Mert Nobre. And that made all the difference, for it was Bobo who doubled the score for the Eagles in the third minute of injury time (93rd).

One man’s fortune is another man’s misfortune. So Denizli lived to fight another day, while under-fire Trabzon coach Broos will have to face the music from the fans and merciless sports media. “We needed a victory to regain self-confidence after the loss to Wolfsburg [on Wednesday],” a relieved Denizli said after the match. “Now we will have to focus all of our attention on the upcoming Fenerbahçe match [this weekend],” he added.

For his part, Broos said he was not going to step down. “I am not going to quit,” the visibly frustrated Belgian stated. “This match was a mockery of justice, to say the least. We controlled the game, had more ball possession but could not convert the chances that came our way. And we paid dearly for it,” he added.