Galatasaray beat Benfica to end two-year wait
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
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Galatasaray 2-1 Benfica
The Turkish side recovered from the quickest UEFA Champions League goal of the season to record their first win in the competition since 2013.
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- Galatasaray curtail run of ten matches without a UEFA Champions League win
- Nicolás Gaitán scores after 74 seconds – the fastest goal in this season's competition
- Selçuk İnan notches his first UEFA Champions League goal on his 25th outing
- Victory lifts the Turkish side to within two points of Benfica and Atlético
- The teams meet again at Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica on 3 November
Galatasaray conceded inside 74 seconds in Istanbul, but it proved a false alarm as they rallied to beat Benfica 2-1 and claim their first UEFA Champions League win in nearly two years.
The Turkish champions' hopes of ending that ten-game wait looked slender when Nicolás Gaitán gave the visitors a dream start. Selçuk İnan's first goal in the competition on his 25th appearance – from the penalty spot – revived them and by half-time they led through Lukas Podolski. They had chances to add to the cushion but there was no denying them.
Even so, the Group C points appeared a remote prospect when Benfica capped their first attack with a goal. Gaitán did the damage, shaking off challenges from Hakan Balta and Aurélien Chedjou before chipping over Fernando Muslera. The ball crossed the line with one minute 14 seconds on the clock, the earliest goal of the UEFA Champions League campaign.
Galatasaray responded well, though, and on 19 minutes they were level after André Almeida handled a Bilal Kisa shot. Captain Selçuk stepped up for what could have been a tense moment for many, but Turkey's UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying hero made it seem easy as he rifled into the top left.
Just after the half-hour mark the hosts were ahead as Podolski collected Chedjou's long ball forward in the inside-right channel and struck a firm left-foot shot between Júlio César's legs.
Hamza Hamzaoğlu's men sought to put the game to bed early in the second period, Wesley Sneijder hitting the post from distance before delivering a corner that was guided on by Hakan to the unmarked Umut Bulut. The forward could not find a way past Júlio César.
Then it was the visitors' turn: Jonas and Gaitán tried their luck and the Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi faithful had their patience tested. However, a spirited defensive display led by Chedjou earned Galatasaray a crucial victory.
Key player: Lukas Podolski
The Germany forward showed his class to score the winner, sliding behind the Benfica defence and coolly firing between Julio César's legs.
Ten-game wait over
It was almost two years since Galatasaray last won in the UEFA Champions League, against Juventus, and their bad start on Wednesday suggested the wait was set to continue. Galatasaray kept their calm and shifted the momentum, though, leading to Selçuk's equalising spot kick.
Spirited display
Galatasaray do not always rely on their defence, but here they protected their lead for almost an hour. Chedjou was everywhere, plugging the gaps. From Bilal to Sneijder, everybody contributed.
Reaction
Hamza Hamzaoğlu, Galatasaray coach
The key to victory was playing with enthusiasm and ambition, as well as fighting together. It's nice to win in the Champions League after such a long time. My players believed we could win so it didn't matter that we fell behind. Looking at our upcoming fixtures, many think we don't have much of a chance of qualifying from this group. We will plan to get the best results we can from our visits to Atlético and Benfica, but it won't be easy considering we're away from home.
Rui Vitória, Benfica coach
This is the Champions League and every team is strong. We started well and scored, which should have given us an advantage, but that goal created a wind which blew in the direction of our opponents and gave oxygen to Galatasaray. We had problems dealing with their reaction and we allowed them to draw level which gave them even more motivation.