Duo delight on domestic stage

By Türker Tozar

Trabzonspor overcame their elimination from the UEFA Cup on Thursday with a narrow win against Superleague strugglers Besiktas JK at the Hüseyin Avni Aker stadium on Sunday to rejoin Fenerbahçe SK at the summit.

Double dismissal
Gökdeniz Karadeniz's 18th-minute strike was enough to seal the win for the home side and leave Besiktas languishing at the wrong end of the table. The visitors were more successful in their UEFA Cup game this week, overcoming FK Bodø/Glimt to seal a place in the group stage, but any hopes of repeating that form on the domestic scene were spoiled when they were reduced to nine men following the dismissals of defenders Çagdas Atan and Ibrahim Toraman.

Brazilian goals
The win drew Trabzonspor back alongside Fenerbahçe after the Istanbul outfit also bounced back from a poor midweek showing - a 6-2 defeat at the hands of Manchester United FC in the UEFA Champions League - with a 2-0 win against Denizlispor. One of the scorers at Old Trafford on Tuesday, Márcio Nobre, got the first and his Brazilian team-mate Alex added the other as the side collected their sixth win of the seven-game-old season.

Galatasaray win
Third-placed Galatasaray SK also won 2-0, against BB Ankaraspor, to keep in touch with the leaders. Necati Ates opened the scoring on 27 minutes, but it was not until injury time that victory was secured when substitute Ümit Karan added a second. MKE Ankaragücü also scored at the death in their game against Gaziantepspor to steal a late victory. A stoppage-time goal by Birol Demirhan earned his side a 2-1 win.

El Saka woe
There was also late drama at Konyaspor, who twice equalised en route to a 3-2 win against Gençlerbirligi SK at the Konya Atatürk stadium. The visitors took the lead through Elvir Bolic, before Konyaspor equalised through Zafer Biryol just before half-time. They regained the lead through Abdelzaher El Saka and after Tayfun Türkmen had levelled the game with four minutes remaining, the Egyptian defender scored an own goal to seal his side's fate.

First win
At the bottom of the table, Istanbulspor AS recorded their first victory of the season with a 2-0 reverse of winless Kayserispor. The other two team's yet to pick up three points were defeated, with Akçaabat Sebatspor beaten by Samsunpor, while Sakaryaspor lost 1-0 against Diyarbakirspor. Elsewhere, Malatyaspor beat Çaykur Rizespor by the same scoreline.