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Fener home in on leaders
Fenerbahce stretched their league record at the Sükrü Saracoglu
stadium to 24 wins out of 24 on Sunday and stayed a point behind leaders Galatasaray by beating Genclerbirligi
2-0. This was despite the fact that manager Mustafa Denizli has so many injury problems that he could only muster
a 17-man squad which included all three of his goalkeepers. In a mostly dull first half, Gencler had the better
of what few chances there were and could have gone ahead on 24 minutes. Souleymane Youla robbed Yusuf Simsek in
midfield and raced past two defenders into the box. His shot was parried by keeper Rüstü Recber and Tarik
Dasgün blasted the rebound well wide. The second half was a different story with Patrick Nijs by far the busier
of the two keepers. Abdullah Ercan's free kick came back from the post on 53 minutes but Serhat Akin finally broke
the deadlock on 74. Another free kick, this time by Ceyhun Eris, resulted in a wild goalmouth scramble with Serhat
getting the final touch. It was not pretty to watch but it was deserved. The second came 10 minutes from time when
Ceyhun finished off a move by Serhat and Oktay Derelioglu, lifting the ball over Nijs's head into the net. Gencler
had Beyhan Sümer sent off for a second yellow card four minutes from the end. Denizli admitted afterwards
that the first half had not produced much football, but said that his game plan had been first to restrict Gencler's
counter-attacking opportunities and then move up a gear later. "We played almost perfectly in the second half,"
he claimed. "Neither Genclerbirligi nor any other team could have stood up to us." Erdogan Arica, whose
first match this was in charge of Gencler since taking over as manager from Walter Meeuws, declined to comment.
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