Besiktas vs Fenerbahce Turkish Super League Matchday 4 Derby Recap
Türkiye felt the derby fever for the first time in the 2026/27 season with their UCL and UEL representatives. In matchday 4 of the Turkish Super League, the Yellow Canaries Fenerbahce hosted the Black Eagles Besiktas in Kadikoy.
Turkish Super League caught the eye in the transfer window by landing big names into their biggest teams and its first thrilling derby is at hand, already putting some of those stars against each other in matchday 4. The Intercontinental Derby is the 365th edition of its historic rivalry between Fenerbahce and Besiktas at Chobani Stadium. In the previous 364 meetings, the Canaries prevailed for 137 times and Eagles responded with 130 victories of their own, while teams drew on 97 occasions. The most recent face-off in Kadikoy ended 1-0 in favour of the host Canaries thanks to a late penalty by Kerem Akturkoglu.
Both teams had a good start to the 2026/27 season and showed a similar form so far. Fenerbahce's domestic campaign began with a minor setback against Genclerbirligi, after an unbeaten start to UCL Qualifiers, but they redeemed themselves with victories over Konyaspor and Samsunspor. The hosts were delighted with Champions League qualification after 18 years and on the eve of the League Phase, a derby victory would boost immense morale into the Canaries before the AS Roma game. Their home record against the Eagles however is kinda concerning. Besiktas has one more win over Fenerbahce in the last 10 outings in Kadikoy with 4. Mason Greenwood and Vedat Muriqi are Ismail Kartal's eyes for goals recently and are expected to play their crucial role in the derby once again. Canaries' midfielders and defenders proved themselves to be stalwart as well and the overall team physicality make them often dangerous in aerial situations.
Meanwhile, Besiktas found their usual attacking identity with the Vincenzo Italiano takeover and started the season with 6 victories without conceding goals. Despite suffering defeats in the league and UEL Qualifiers, the Black Eagles bounced back with the 6-goal destruction of Corum FK, in which Dusan Vlahovič scored a hat-trick for the first time since his Fiorentina days. Captain Orkun Kokcu constantly provides long-range goal threats and ex-Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny has a remarkable record of scoring against the Canaries. However, the true Intercontinental Derby gourmets know that Besiktas has the tendency to introduce rare goalscorers against Fenerbahce, so it wouldn't be a shock to see an unexpected derby hero for them. Black Eagles are catching the eye with their gegenpress play and quick retaining of ball possession, which may exploit Canaries' weakness against shock presses during transition. But their attacking manner also leaves them open for counter-attacks that quick players such as Mason Greenwood will be waiting to benefit from.
Coming to the derby, Besiktas doesn't have any absentees and is expected to start with Italiano's usual starting eleven. On the other hand, the hosts are still missing Marco Asensio and Jayden Oosterwolde due to injuries and they sold team's top scorer Anderson Talisca in the Deadline Day, right before the game.
So without further ado, here are the starting elevens of Türkiye's first derby of the season:
Fenerbahce XI: Ederson - Semedo - Škriniar - Aké - Brown - Guendouzi - Kanté - Greenwood - Kahveci - Aydin - Muriqi
Besiktas XI: Nübel - Murillo - Agbadou - Topcu - Yilmaz - Ozcan - Cerny - Olaitan - Kokcu - Trossard - Vlahović
First Half
The derby starts with both sides measuring each other in the early minutes and it’s the visitors creating the first threats. Ridvan Yilmaz’s first attempt doesn’t find the target, later Ederson first denies Trossard in close range with his feet and then stretches to parry Junior Olaitan’s ranged effort to corner. Fenerbahce’s first shot or rather tap on target comes in the 26th minute and it ends up at the Eagles’ net. Emmanuel Agbadou fails to intercept Archie Brown’s long-throw, which allows Milan Škriniar to tap the ball in to give Fenerbahce the lead at the derby. Besiktas responded 12 minutes later with the equaliser. Trossard’s classy outside-foot pass sets Ridvan Yilmaz up in the Canaries’ box, his second shot of the game hits the post and goes into Ederson’s goal in the 38th minute. Canaries almost takes the lead again with İrfan Can Kahveci right after the equaliser, but the midfielder finds himself in offside position during the build-up, so the goal he scores doesn’t count. Towards the end of the first half, Greenwood has a solo effort, beating two Besiktas defenders in his run on the right side, but his shot targets the sidenets. And with that, the first half of the Intercontinental Derby ends 1-1.
Second Half
The remaining 45 minutes of the game begins tense enough for a classic Turkish derby. Vlahović and Škriniar argue with each other and stall the game for a few minutes. A specific hand gesture from the Serbian striker becomes the highlight of the tension. Afterwards, the momentum shifts to Besiktas and the hosts find themselves under great pressure. Much like the first half, Trossard and newly-subbed Ilhan Fakili couldn’t put the ball past Ederson and Vlahović got a goal disallowed due to a foul on Kanté. Linking up with Mason Greenwood later, Vedat Muriqi puts in a powerful long-range effort and it’s Nübel’s turn to make a save this time. The Serbian striker however takes back the stage in the 73rd minute with the second goal of the Black Eagles.
Olaitan sees his captain Orkun Kokcu making a run through the big gap in Fenerbahce defence towards the box and passes to him. Instead of trying his luck against the approaching Ederson one-on-one, the Turkish international does the extra pass to Vlahović, who is left open to make the finishing touch into the open goal. With the first half’s roles changed, Fenerbahce searches for an opening in Besiktas defence and Kerem Akturkoglu is brought down entering the Eagles box during that mission. Although the hosts and their fans expect a penalty, neither the referee nor the VAR check afterwards grant them their request, which earns furious reactions from the fans. In the dying minutes, Leandro Trossard insists to open his Besiktas goal account, but another near miss and a ruled out shot leave those hopes for another day.
Ederson crashes hard into Guendouzi sliding to block Ouattara’s low pass and worries the hosts for a moment, but the Brazilian stands back up without any issues to complete the game. Hyeon-gyu Oh’s foul to Brown in the continuation of that same position becomes the reason why the referee disallowed Trossard’s latest attempt. So, with Fenerbahce not being able to shoot anything on target towards the end, the game concludes with 2-1 in favour of the visitors Besiktas.
With this result, Besiktas collected another victorious memory at their local rivals’ home ground. Leandro Trossard showed his quality with the assist he provided and played his role in the second goal by luring Nelson Semedo out to give Orkun Kokcu that big space in defence to exploit. Like we mentioned earlier, Intercontinental Derby is famous for the unexpected goalscorers of Black Eagles and today Besiktas’ own Ridvan Yilmaz became that lucky player. Dusan Vlahović kept his goalscoring form going in the derby, became fans’ hero and showed a glimpse of the danger that awaits any opponent, if he links up well with Kokcu and Trossard.
However, his obvious hand gesture might cause him a suspension headache for the next league fixtures. Apart from the players, this match was also a crucial test of Vincenzo Italiano’s management and he passed with flying colours. His team didn’t panic after falling back, he took a risky sub with Ouattara to cover Greenwood and it paid off, he used the youth of his team to help the experienced finishing the job. His usual gameplan was almost executed flawlessly and he showcased his man management by putting trust in all of his players, even when the stakes rose so high. The only part that didn’t quite work in the Italian’s squad was Emmanuel Agbadou. The Ivorian centre-back was messy with his interceptions in general, also causing Canaries’ goal and yet, Italiano opted to play him the entire game.
On the other hand, the hype that was built around Fenerbahce after the good season start and Champions League qualification took a huge hit with the humbling derby defeat. The chaotic opening goal gave the hosts and their fans a good morale boost, but it lasted short and remained the only moment that the Canaries had the momentum. Ederson and Škriniar put in a performance worthy of being involved in Man of the Match discussions.
It’s safe to say that the Brazilian glove is finding the morale and courage he once had in his City days and the Slovakian defender kept his good defensive performances going in the derby, putting the cherry on top with a goal. However they both were let down, especially by Semedo. The Portuguese right-back was easily lured out of his position, creating big spaces at the back, and worn out by Besiktas’ left side to the point he struggled to run back to his position. This reckless style of him gave his fellow defenders extra work withstanding the Eagles’ attack and eventually, they couldn’t hold them back anymore. Ismail Kartal’s touch to the game was no use either, unlike his Italian colleague, the experienced Turkish manager paid the price of his rather conservative substitution choices. Another detail that caught the eye between the managers was the contribution they got from their local players. While Yilmaz and Kokcu played their roles in both of Besiktas goals, with Ozcan and Topcu helping the defence, Fenerbahce’s Turkish lads struggled to keep up with the tempo of the game and creativity. Right before the AS Roma game on Thursday at home, this derby defeat was the last thing the Canaries needed and it exposed some facts about the team that their fans can’t deny anymore: The team is old, struggles against high-tempo opponents and the bench is a doubt.
In conclusion, the 365th thrilling meeting of local rivals Fenerbahce and Besiktas ended up with the Black Eagles standing victorious. In the following days, the Canaries will try to bounce back at home for their long-awaited UCL return against AS Roma, while Besiktas will be resting until the next league game, before entering their own tight schedule with the addition of UEL fixtures. We’ll see what fate awaits these teams in the next few months with their tightened schedules.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
