Well Deserved Victory

Trabzonspor away matches have always meant more than just a game for Fenerbahçe. Since the 2010-2011 season’s championship struggle, where Fenerbahçe won the title through sheer effort, the Trabzonspor community has not been able to accept this outcome. Since then, they have approached matches against Fenerbahçe with a very different motivation than they prepare for games against other league teams. As a result, discussions after each match tend to focus on what happens on the field and the refereeing decisions rather than the football itself.

This tradition continued, and we left behind another match where referee decisions were a central topic. Fenerbahçe managed to leave the field with a well-deserved victory. In fact, the winning goal should not have taken as long to come, but considering the time the ball was in play, the timing of the goal was acceptable.

Referees never surprise Fenerbahce

As expected, Trabzonspor started the match fast and aggressive. Fenerbahçe fans were not surprised by the referees’ reluctance to show a yellow card for Ozan Tufan’s hard fouls. When Osayi was on the receiving end of a direct red-card-worthy foul, which was only punished with a yellow, it showed what mindset the referees had going into this game. The VAR referee, who stayed silent throughout most of the match, intervening for two penalty situations in the span of 20 seconds at the beginning of the second half was, again, no surprise to Fenerbahçe fans.

However, after the 70th minute, a completely dominant Fenerbahçe took control of the game. The substitutions gave Fenerbahçe momentum. With Džeko holding the ball in the final third and distributing passes that led to successive chances, Fenerbahçe first found the equalizer and then scored the winning goal in the final minutes of the game. The assist from Dušan Tadić before the winning goal perfectly summarized why he needed to be on the field for the full 90 minutes.

Once again, the special efforts of Trabzonspor players against Fenerbahçe were not enough for them to take any points at home this year. Coach Şenol Güneş’s post-match remarks, admitting they couldn’t stop Fenerbahçe and not attempting to make any excuses, was surprising for the Fenerbahçe community, as they are not used to this kind of straightforwardness.

Will 26 Games be Enough to Close 5 Points Difference?

In a week when Galatasaray was on a bye, this away victory against Trabzonspor was highly valuable. Fenerbahçe is now only five points behind the league leader, with 26 matches left to close the gap. We have no doubt that José Mourinho has strong plans to achieve this.