Saturday, October 23, 2010

The big derby tomorrow

Fenerbahce v Galatasaray. The biggest derby in Turkey and if I am being honest proberly the biggest in the world after Real madrid v Barcelona.
So much goes on in this fixture down the years that it often decides the destination of the title every season but in the last two years both sides haven't set the world alight. This season both are out of European football after disasterous qualifying rounds that saw Fener out of both the champions league and Europa League within four weeks. Galatasaray were out after some dodgy displays.
The build up has been good for Fener and they are in a better position than arch-rivals Galatasaray. Frank Rijkaard was sacked during the week as boss of the Ali Sami Yen side after Ankaragucu went to Istanbul and rocked to a 4-2 win. Fenerbahce meanwhile last Monday were 4-1 winners over Konyaspor. Fenerbahce are the form side going into this game.
The makings of a great derby then? possibly. There have been some dour derbies down the years with the cup quarter-final in 2008 being one of them.
A history of sendings off is not surprising and with eleven reds in the last three seasons in both derbies I think we can safely say there could be another few tomorrow night.
Galatasaray haven't beaten Fenerbahce in any fixture since 2008 when a Shabandi Nonda strike gave them a 1-0 win at home. Since that fixture there have been four games with Fener winning three and drawing one.
My verdict is that Fener will win by 3-2 possibly and with a few red cards too to add spice. Whatever happens it is going to be a good derby and who knows maybe Gala will win at the Sukru for the first time since 1999.

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