Gala Edges Out the Wasteful Black Eagles: Besiktas vs Galatasaray Derby Recap
- therookiereporters
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
One of the fiercest rivalries of Turkish football reignites on matchday 25 of the Turkish Super League. In a crucial game regarding the top spots of the league, in-form Besiktas hosts the defending champions Galatasaray at Besiktas Park.
The Black Eagles and the Lions have a long history since the first days of Turkish football. Since the beginning of the rivalry in 1924, the teams have faced each other 359 times. Galatasaray leads the way with 128 wins, Besiktas emerged victorious in 116 matches and the remaining 115 has concluded in a draw. Despite the statistical superiority over the Black Eagles in total, Galatasaray’s away game record against Besiktas in the past 10 years only include 1 victory out of 9 games. The rest is a draw and 7 losses.
The first game between the teams earlier in the 2025/2026 season ended in a 1-1 draw at Rams Park. Coming into the matchday 25, Okan Buruk’s Lions are on top of the league with 4 points gap against their other historic title rivals, Fenerbahce. And Sergen Yalcin’s Besiktas is currently sitting in 4th position with a 13-match unbeaten streak, battling against Trabzonspor and Göztepe for the European spots. The hosts found great form after a productive winter transfer season, the new in-form South Korean striker Hyeon-gyu Oh and the returning captain Orkun Kokcu have pulled off eye-catching performances in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen and right-wing Baris Alper Yilmaz are considered Gala’s best assets against the Black Eagles. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the derby line-ups:
Besiktas XI: Ersin - Murillo - Agbadou - Uduokhai - R. Yilmaz - Ndidi - Asllani - Cerny - Kokcu(c) - Olaitan - Oh
Galatasaray XI: Cakir - Sallai - Sanchez - Bardakci(c) - Jakobs - Lemina - Torreira - Sané - Sara - B.A. Yilmaz - Osimhen
In the derby, Galatasaray has no missing players in the squad, however Baris Alper Yilmaz starts on the opposite side of his usual right-wing position. Meanwhile at Besiktas side, centre-back Emirhan Topcu and striker El Bilal Toure are out with injuries. The hosts will want to extend their unbeaten streak to keep chasing 3rd place. And Gala will try to break their unwanted record at Besiktas away to fill morale before their Liverpool game on Tuesday.
First Half
The first threat comes from Galatasaray in the 6th minute, after Kristjan Asllani makes a wrong pass. Osimhen passes the Besiktas defenders and challenges the goalkeeper. But, Ersin Destanoglu intercepts Osimhen on time and even gets a foul, in which the Nigerian striker sees yellow. In the first minutes, both teams try to measure each other and to find openings with long balls. Besiktas’ first shot comes from Asllani, who tries his luck just outside the box, however the Albanian loanee’s attempt doesn’t find the target.
Gala mostly retains the ball possession in the first half and puts pressure on Besiktas, but Eagles’ defence doesn’t leave much opening, despite losing the ball constantly. In the 28th minute, Leroy Sané gets off lightly with a yellow card after a foul, which could have been evaluated in VAR as a potential red card. Around 10 minutes later, Sane serves Osimhen a cross and the Nigerian striker turns it into a clinical header to give Galatasaray the lead. With this goal, Victor Osimhen extends his goalscoring streak to 8 matches. In the last minutes of the first half, Besiktas gets a chance to equalise with Amir Murillo, but Ismael Jakobs makes a crucial tackle to prevent the Panamanian right back from scoring.
So, the first half ends with Galatasaray’s 1-0 lead at Besiktas Park. Both teams spent the first half mostly testing each other out. As the minutes passed in the half, Okan Buruk’s men started taking the control and trying to be more creative in the front, which worked out in the end. Besiktas couldn’t make their host advantage work and could rarely break through the Lions’ defences. Junior Olaitan’s wrong pass led to Galatasaray’s goal and he made constant passing errors through the entire first half. The Beninese winger seemed lacking confidence and was the worst player on the pitch so far. Besides, captain Orkun Kokcu needs to calm down in the second half, if he doesn’t want to leave his team a man down in the heated derby atmosphere.
Second Half
Besiktas starts the second half better with back-to-back corners, putting Gala under pressure for a change. The Black Eagles take their early chances with Cerny, Olaitan and Asllani, but they can’t get the ball past the defence or Ugurcan Cakir. Galatasaray tries to regain ball control, but again they almost lose a man, when Osimhen keeps playing, despite the referee's whistle. A similar situation 15 years ago in the Champions League resulted in a highly discussed red card for Arsenal’s Robin van Persie. The referee didn’t charge Osimhen’s behaviour, however in the 62nd minute, Leroy Sané can’t get away the second time. The German winger sees a direct red card after stepping on Ridvan Yilmaz’s ankle.
With Galatasaray one man down on the pitch, momentum shifts to the Black Eagles. However, Galatasaray defence remains solid, even if it comes to some last gasp interceptions and Ugurcan Cakir makes crucial saves after crucial saves. Most importantly, the hosts, the team that sets the pace in the second half of the derby, remains wasteful in the front, which helps the Lions even more. Gala even breaks through Besiktas defence once again with Baris Alper Yilmaz after Besiktas defence’s struggle to clear the ball. But, Destanoglu denies his 1vs1 challenge as well. Bardakci sees a yellow card for Galatasaray in the 72nd minute, which rules him out from next week’s league game against Istanbul Basaksehir, as well as Sane. As the minutes pass, the Black Eagles take more risks, attack with more players, send in crosses after crosses, yet the result remains the same. Oh, Kokcu, Ndidi, Agbadou, Olaitan, everybody misses a chance to equalise and in the end, the final whistle blows for Galatasaray’s 1-0 win at Besiktas Park.
With this result, Okan Buruk’s Galatasaray extended their lead in the league against Fenerbahce to 7 points with a game in hand. This becomes their second victory at Besiktas Park in the last 10 attempts, which gives the Lions an important morale boost before the Champions League Round of 16 against Liverpool. Ugurcan Cakir made 7 saves in the derby and became the Man of the Match by helping his team hold onto the lead. Osimhen showed the power of clinical finishing once again and the Lions’ mentality after going down to 10 men became crucial in their victory. On the other side of the pitch, Besiktas wasted their chances and their home advantage against their fierce rivals, despite some controversial decisions being in discussion. Even if some of the decisions had been made differently, the Black Eagles didn’t seem to have the mentality to break through Galatasaray to equalise or to win. Olaitan’s many mistakes and general ineffective performance in front cost them the derby. This result keeps Sergen Yalcin’s men in 4th place, but their unbeaten streak comes to an end. Now, they’ll have to hope for Trabzonspor to lose points on Monday against Kayserispor, so they can keep the close chase going.
In conclusion, another thrilling derby took place in Istanbul and Galatasaray stood tall in the 360th meeting of the rivalry. We’ll see in the following days how this outcome affects Galatasaray’s UCL and league campaigns and how Besiktas will react to the derby loss.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
