Ankaragucu secured their place in the next round of the Turkish Cup, but it was far from the kind of performance you would expect against a team sitting just outside the relegation zone in the 4th tier of Turkish football.
Team - Altay Bayindir, Erdem Sen, Bakary Kone, Mehmet Sak, Kaan Uykur, Anton Putsila, Ender Aygoren, Alessio Cerci, Mahmut Akan, Youness Mokhtar, Muhammed Kehinde,
Subs - Johannes Hopf, Furkan Belkovic, Mert Aydeniz, Sedat Agcay, Ricardo Faty, Burak Evren, Mahmut Altinkaya, Oguzhan Orhan
Ismail Kartal rang the changes from Sundays match with Fenerbahce giving all the first team players apart from Bakary Kone a rest. Due to the injuries to Yalcin Ayhan, Alihan Kubalas and Thomas Heurteaux it meant Kone was the only fit centre half.
There was an opportunity for certain players to put themselves in contention for the weekends match with Kayserispor. Sadly no one grabbed that opportunity apart from the two outfield youth products who were both excellent. Kaan Uykur and Ender Aygoren did themselves proud with their performances that will have delighted Ismail Kartal. Ender in particular put in a spirited performance and showed good quality on the ball. He was unlucky on a couple of occasions not to have put himself on the scoresheet.
The only goal of the game came from the penalty spot. Anton Putsilla saw his strike hit the hand of one of the Erbaas players in the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Up stepped Cerci who fired the ball into the roof of the net to make it 1-0.
Youness Mokhtar played his first game since returning from injury and was disappointing in the first half. He started to come into the game more in the second half and will be pleased to be back in contention. Mahmut Akan was dreadful and i would be very surprised if we see him playing in the future.
Overall a poor performance but the team are through to the next round and it will be interesting to see who we get in the draw.
A brave decision by Ismail Bey to go with the fringe players in the squad, because, as we know all too well, the Turkish Cup matches regularly throw up surprises !
ReplyDeleteFortunately, on this occasion, Ankaragucu prevailed, so the bottom line is ........... Ankaragucu reached the lucrative Group Stage which is not only excellent for the Club, but gives the supporters some extra matches.
Let's hope that we can draw Fener in the group and then we can think about Galatasaray in the Final yesssssssssss !!!!
Genclerbirligi join Ankaragucu in the next round of the Turkish Cup !
ReplyDeleteLast Thursday Gencler beat Diyarbekirspor 1-0. I don't have any details of the match except to say that Cengizhan scored the goal in the 90th minute and the match was played in Ankara.
As Harun said on fb a few days ago, the format of the Turkish Cup has changed this season. There will be no Group Stage. The next round will be on a knock-out basis.
I'll put the draw up as soon as it's announced.