Search icon

Sport

24th Sep 2017

Just the five red cards in the Istanbul derby and it was all too much for one fan

Chaotic scenes

Darragh Murphy

Never bet the under on the booking points total in the Istanbul derby.

Fireworks are always to be expected when Fenerbahce and Besiktas clash but five red cards in the one game took the piss a little bit.

The Turkish equivalent of Match of the Day would have struggled to fit all the action from Saturday’s match at the Sukri Saracoglu Stadium into a tidy highlights package because, in truth, there was chaos from start to finish.

11 yellow cards, five red cards, three goals (two of which were penalties) made the game an unmissable encounter in which several former Premier League players featured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=413&v=WDHaHHJLOzs

Vincent Janssen of Fenerbahce gave his side a 2-0 lead by converting a penalty before, just moments later, former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel got Besiktas on the scoresheet after latching on to an assist from Alvaro Negredo.

All three of the players mentioned above were booked in the game, joining Mehmet Ekici, Oguzhan Ozyakup, Atiba Hutchinson, Ricardo Quaresma, Alper Potuk, Dusko Tosic in the book.

Beskitas’ Quaresma, Hutchinson and Ozyakup received second bookings while Ismail Koybasi and Neto of Fenerbahce were shown straight reds towards the end of either half.

It was absolute bedlam and the drama was simply too much for one Fenerbahce supporter, who destroyed his television at one point during the game.

Fortunately for him, his side held out to win and, even more fortunately for him, Fenerbahce midfielder Souza kindly offered to compensate the fan for the near-heart attack he suffered on Saturday by reimbursing him for the damaged TV.