Salah Show Provides Shock Result: Trabzonspor vs Galatasaray Matchday 6 Derby Recap
Champions of Türkiye took on the Anatolian giants before the international break. In the matchday 6 of the Turkish Super League, the Claret-Blues Trabzonspor hosted the Lions Galatasaray at Papara Park in Trabzon.
In the weekend, when football treats fans with many highly-anticipated matchups around the world, Turkish Super League provides an Istanbul-Anatolia rivalry between Galatasaray and Trabzonspor. The teams faced each other 143 times in the 52 years of the rivalry. The Lions have a big upper hand against their opponents with 66 victories, Claret-Blues won 45 games and for 32 times, the rivals settled for a draw. The latest clash between the teams last season resulted in a crucial 2-1 victory for Trabzonspor at home, in order to keep their title hopes alive, but it was the Lions who clinched it at the end of the season.
The reigning champions had a good start to their domestic campaign, remaining unbeaten in the league for the first 5 games (4W, 1D), and currently leading the way with one point in front of the local rivals Besiktas. Galatasaray also competed in this season’s UCL League Phase and had a challenging start at Lisbon with a 3-goal loss against Sporting. The Lions previously redeemed that defeat with a 1-0 victory and clean sheet at home in the league against Kocaelispor. With their former player and experienced manager Okan Buruk in charge, the Lions adopted a high line-pressing football at front and with a hard-working player such as Victor Osimhen, this approach usually works for the Turkish champions. Despite the good form however, Galatasaray appeared to be leaky at the back, conceding 9 goals in 6 games, which seems like an appetising stat for goalscorers such as Salah, Onuachu and Saviolo.
On the other hand, Trabzonspor entered the season with high hopes after a very eventful summer transfer season, most notably and shockingly landing Mohammed Salah from the red side of Merseyside to the shores of Black Sea. However, the Claret-Blues had a shocking start to their season and kept a very inconsistent record so far, despite the Egyptian being in form. After falling to the UECL League Phase and point losses in the League, the club parted ways with Fatih Tekke and brought in another former player Huseyin Cimsir in the interim role for 2 games. The interim manager provided the season highlight of a 5-0 win against Genclerbirligi, but lost the game against Konyaspor as well. The Black Sea side recently landed the German manager Thomas Reis, who previously managed last season’s UECL competitors Samsunspor, another top flight team from the same region. In his first game in charge with Trabzonspor, a hard task awaits the experienced German.
Coming to this game, the hosts are missing Ruslan Malinovskyi and Okay Yokuslu due to injuries, in addition to the suspended Folcarelli and Batagov. Salah is the key player and the top scorer of the team with 4 goals and he’s accompanied by young, rapid and clinical providers such as Muci, Saviolo and Franculino Dju. Meanwhile, there are even more significant losses at the Lions. Alongside Mario Lemina and Wilfried Singo, team’s key player and top scorer Osimhen remains injured, who is the center of Okan Buruk’s pressing game. In his absence, the Turkish internationals Baris Alper Yilmaz or Deniz Gul are expected to play as striker with big responsibilities burdened upon Leão, Sané and Yunus Akgun at front.
So without further ado, here are the first elevens of the fierce Turkish rivals:
Trabzonspor XI: Onana - Pina - Nwaiwu - Savić - Eskihellac - Kabasakal - Fabinho - Salah - Muci - Saviolo - Franculino
Galatasaray XI: Cakir - Sallai - Sánchez - Bardakci - Jakobs - Torreira - Sara - Sané - Akgun - Leão - Gul
First Half
The game begins and the hosts don’t waste any time to take the lead. In the aftermath of a Galatasaray long-throw, Eskihellac finds the unmarked and onside Salah with a long pass. The Egyptian leads the swift counter-attack, sprinting alone towards the Gala box and finishes one-on-one against Ugurcan Cakir to make it 1-0 already in the 4th minute. He almost doubles his tally a few minutes later, but his close-range attempt barely goes wide. After shaking off the early goal shock, the Lions take control of the game and start pressuring the Claret-Blues. However, they missed their initial chances with Sane twice and Sanchez too. Deniz Gul comes really close to scoring with a header to Sara’s corner kick, but the striker Franculino comes to Trabzonspor’s rescue on the line. The left-back Ismael Jakobs finds himself with the ball in the Trabzonspor box after dribbling past their defenders, but this time Andre Onana is there to deny him. After withstanding the Lions’ attacks in the majority of the first half, Salah takes the stage once again with an assist this time. He passes the ball to the unmarked Saviolo on the opposite side, who puts a well-placed strike to the bottom far post to double his team’s tally in the 39th minute. In the next 5 minutes, Franculino Dju experiences a mixed period in his game. The Guinean-Bissau striker sent an open chance in the Gala box wide at first, but then he stole the ball by pressing on Davinson Sanchez and assisted Mo Salah’s second, his team’s third goal in the 44th minute. And with that the first half ended 3-0 with the Claret-Blues in front.
Second Half
The second half begins with both keepers taking more responsibilities between the posts. Onana denies Sallai’s strong shot from right outside the box and his Turkish colleague Cakir does well to parry Saviolo’s deflected cross. The second half doesn’t become as eventful as the first one, but red cards bring an unexpected action and tension to the game. First, Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk sees red because of his reactions on the sideline and in the dying minutes, the late-sub Lesley Ugochukwu gets sent-off due to dangerous foul play on ex-Hull City player Ozan Tufan. Before withstanding Ugochukwu’s foul, the experienced Turkish midfielder helps Salah to complete his hattrick in the 80th minute, when the Egyptian once again breaks away behind the defence line. This goal also determines the derby’s result as 4-0 in favour of Trabzonspor.
With this result, the Claret-Blues took their third victory of the season and made a good, fresh start with Thomas Reis. Mohammed Salah becomes the Man of the Match without doubt by contributing in his team’s every goal and taking the match ball home with a hat-trick. Despite the result, Trabzonspor actually didn’t dominate the game as much as the scoreline suggests and only took half as many shots than their opponents. However, their finishing appeared to be lethal, as every single shot on target found the net, and their plan to let the opposition play their usual high-line press to create space for their fast wingers worked out pretty well. Although the game got more tense, especially in the second half, the players managed to remain rather calm and avoided any unwanted scenarios.
However, the same can’t be said for the reigning champions. Not only could the manager Okan Buruk not keep his cool, but he also refused to switch to a rather patient approach, while his usual pressing play wasn’t giving any results. Davinson Sanchez had a woeful game in terms of defending and led Trabzonspor’s third goal with a huge mistake. The defence in general kept its leaky performance and recorded the team's worst opening defensive performance in 60 years by conceding 10 goals in 6 league games, which is actually 13 in all competitions. Galatasaray also had a bad day in front, having only 2 shots on goal without scoring. Both attempts coming from defenders summarise the attack’s challenging derby day. After the shocking result, the fans are furious with one question in their minds: “Will this team always underperform without Osimhen, when it matters?”. The question is a very clear critique of the Lions’ form without the Nigerian striker and also of the summer transfer window, in which the club acted late to bring in reinforcements.
Long story short, the last derby game in Türkiye before the long international break concludes with a huge 4-0 victory for the Anatolian side Trabzonspor. The Claret-Blues took off a good start with their new manager Thomas Reis, but we’ll see if this beginning will remain for long-term, as there will be more domestic and Conference League fixtures, when club football returns to the scene.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
