Photo courtesy of TRTEnglish
After defeating Sivasspor 4-2 at home yesterday, Galatasaray clinched their second straight and 19th overall Turkish Super League title with two games to spare. Burak Yilmaz and Selcuk Inan each scored a brace to guarantee all three points and to keep the title red and yellow for another year. This occurs a week before the biggest derby of the year when they visit the Sukru Saracoglu stadium to play arch-rivals Fenerbahce.
Didier Drogba made a bold statement when he claimed that Gala want to increase the 10 point lead over Fenerbahce by winning on the road at their place next weekend. By saying that, he puts unnecessary pressure on himself, his teammates, and on his coaches as well. It is always good to head into a rivalry match and play to win. However, with the title already clinched, there is no need to go overboard and make guarantees that may not happen. The champions are more than capable of going in there and winning, but the chances are not very high. The last time Galatasaray won at the Sukru Saracoglu was back in 1999 with a score of 2-1.
On a more important matter, keeping their squad intact might be difficult as some of the individual players outshone their teammates by a mile this season. Inan, Yilmaz, Emmanuel Eboue, and of course keeper Fernando Muslera are the players with highlights over their names. Inan was being watched by clubs from Spain while Yilmaz was also being watched from that area in addition to teams from Italy and England. Eboue was being watched by Fiorentina of Italy while Muslera’s name floated around at FC Barcelona. All of these names played their parts en route to a consecutive league title, and a good reason why the players will all want to stay put is the guarantee of another campaign of Champions League soccer. If some are to leave, Gala will have a lot of rebuilding to do.
For now, the reigning Turkish champions can look forward to a break after the remainder of the season, and during that time, changes will be made to the team if need be.
