Galatasaray 2-1 Fenerbahce: Osimhen brace secures bragging rights

Victor Osimhen's first-half brace was enough to earn Galatasaray a 2-1 win over fierce rivals Fenerbahce in the Turkish Super Lig, despite Irfan Can Kahveci's stunning overhead kick.

Osimhen opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark and added his second just before the break, and it was enough to send Galatasaray back to the top of the table.

Baris Alper Yilmaz forced Ederson into a couple of early saves, but he turned provider for Osimhen's 29th-minute opener.

The Turkiye international prodded it through to Osimhen, who had three Fenerbahce defenders around him, but he rifled into the bottom-right corner.

Osimhen, on the stretch, saw another effort tipped wide of the post, but he was in the right place to help Davinson Sanchez's rasping strike past Ederson with a glancing header in the 44th minute.

Ederson tipped away Aleksey Batrakov's low drive, and Archie Brown turned the rebound onto the post to deny Osimhen what would have been a simple tap-in on the stroke of half-time.

Osimhen nodded in what he thought was a hat-trick goal six minutes after the break, but had strayed marginally offside.

Fenerbahce, who failed to have a shot before the break, attempted to make the most of that reprieve, with Ugurcan Cakir smothering a Romelu Lukaku chance immediately after.

Ismail Jakobs then headed against the woodwork at the other end before Kahveci got Fenerbahce back into the match with a moment of quality. He met Oguz Aydin's cross with an overhead kick, and Cakir could not keep it out despite getting a hand to it.

That goal opened the game up, with Lucas Torreira, Leroy Sane and Rafael Leao all seeing chances go begging for Galatasaray, while Fenerbahce could have snatched a late draw, but Milan Skriniar's 90th-minute header was cleared off the line by Mario Lemina.

Galatasaray open the gap to rivals

Galatasaray went back to the top of the table, moving two points clear of Amed SFK, but Fenerbahce sit fifth, already six points behind them after a sluggish display.

The hosts looked up for it from the very start at RAMS Park and racked up 11 of their 23 shots before the break, with Fenerbahce offering virtually nothing going the other way.

In fact, they became the first team in a Super Lig match this season to prevent Fenerbahce from taking a single shot in the first half, while also having the most on-target shots against them (six). 

Osimhen alone had seven shots, more than Fenerbahce managed as a team across the 90 minutes (four, three on target), while he also accumulated 0.62 expected goals (xG) of Galatasaray's 2.27 total – the visitors, by contrast, mustered just 0.31 xG.

Okan Buruk (W5 D3 L1) became just the third manager in Galatasaray's history, after Fatih Terim (seven) and Gunduz Kilic (five), to defeat Fenerbahce at least five times in the Super Lig.