Kazım Kazım acclaims classy Fenerbahçe

In Fenerbahçe SK's centenary year, they are close to making a little bit of history. Twenty-eight minutes into their home UEFA Champions League Group G encounter with PSV Eindhoven, Kazım Kazım let fly from outside the box, and his shot was deflected in by visiting defender Dirk Marcellis. Two minutes later Fenerbahçe scored again and the 2-0 win puts them on the verge of the knockout stages for the first time, at the fifth attempt.

Opening goal
While the first strike has been put down as an own goal, London-born Turkish international Kazım Kazım was certainly eager to claim it, and had personal reasons for doing so. "It was the funeral of my cousin today but I chose to stay here and play, and to score in the game was big for me," he told uefa.com.

Dream come true
It has certainly been quite a journey for the attacker, who under his English name of Colin Kazım-Richards was relegated with Sheffield United FC last season before his dream transfer to Istanbul. "If you speak to anyone I know, this is where I have always wanted to be, playing UEFA Champions League football," the 21-year-old said. "I'd be lying if I was to say I didn't. I always thought if I could show the best bits of my game someone might take a chance. To play in the UEFA Champions League is a dream come true. I've dreamt of it since I was a young boy."

Defensive nous
Unbeaten in the group stage, Fenerbahçe have kept three clean sheets in four games and Kazım Kazım believes that tight defending was the key to allowing the second-placed side to open up a four-point lead over PSV and move to within one victory of the last 16. "We shut up the game really quickly," he said. "We picked when we wanted to play. But the thing about us today, which we've sometimes lacked, is we defended well when we needed to defend. We didn't overplay, we kicked the ball out when it needed to be kicked out."

World-class talent
That was even more impressive considering Fenerbahçe were missing Lugano at the back, who was suspended along with forward Deivid and injured striker Mateja Kežman. However, Kazım Kazım felt that those absences were never going to prove an obstacle to success, saying: "We're full of world-class players. Anyone who gets in, is going to do well. We are blessed in that way."