A blistering start to the season for a certain Ricardo Quaresma has sent to media into overdrive.
Not only are they running out of superlatives to splash across their front pages, but they are also in disbelief as to how such a player failed to make the grade at Inter and previously, Barcelona â presumably indicating that Besiktas are now on a par with the two previous Champions League winnersâ¦
It must be said, Tricky Ricky has repaired the broken hearts of Besiktas - to the extent that he even received a standing ovation for catching a stray seagull that found its way onto the pitch during SaturdayâÂÂs win over Antalyaspor.
Surprisingly, that was the only ovation he received as Fabian Ernst and Bobo took centre stage. The German midfielder fed Bobo to open the scoring, before a mix up between Hilbert and goal-keeper Hakan Arikan gifted Antalya an equaliser. It was the same pair who, as the clock ticked over 90 minutes, combined to keep Besiktas on the tail of leaders Bursaspor - and all of this without Guti!
Bursa continued their winning ways thanks to an early goal from Huseyin Cimsir. The former champions are en route to breaking FenerbahceâÂÂs record of eight straight league victories.
The Ali Sami Yen stadium proved a lucky venue for strikers this weekend. Milan Baros scored a first half hat-trick to help Galatasaray past Istanbul BB. Cimbom looked very comfortable and finally showed signs of improvement after their indifferent performances in the opening weeks of the season.
On Monday night Kasimpasa welcomed Fenerbahce to the same stadium. It was a similar story for another team struggling of late, as Mamadou Niang helped himself to three goals in a 6-2 win. FenerbahceâÂÂs goal rush also saw the much-criticised Alex De Souza net twice with Emre producing the strike of the weekend.
A side story emerging from Galatasaray is that Brazilian international Elano has returned to Brazil, citing âÂÂfamily reasonsâÂÂ. The midfielder has spent the majority of the season on the bench or in the stands and has, reportedly, told his agent to find him a new club. Sabah claims that the Brazilian âÂÂdoes not seem inclined to returnâÂÂ. Maybe not until January anyway.
TDâÂÂs prediction of the game of the weekend ended, unsurprisingly, as a 0-0 draw between Kayserispor and Trabzonspor.
The home side should really have taken all three points had it not been for a deluded linesman who made two errors in disallowing a legitimate goal.
Not only was the player he flagged offside in fact onside, but worse still, he was not even the player who scored the goal â therefore according to Law 100,000,935 of the idiots guide to refereeing â not interfering with play!
At least the blog did manage to get one prediction right this weekend. That was the inkling that Manisa would beat Sivasspor. However, it was not â as I had predicted - down to Ariza Makakula but in fact his strike partner Josh Simpson.
The Canadian forward is making a name for himself and completed the trio of players to score a hat-trick this weekend. It was three points that helped Manisaspor out of the relegation zone and pushed their opponents in to it.
Three hat-tricks, 25 goals and no stone-throwing might sound good, but week seven sees Trabzon host Besiktas and NO Monday night game...can it get much better??!
RESULTS:Kasimpasa 2-6 Fenerbahce, Galatasaray 3-1 Istanbul BB, Kayserispor 0-0 Trabzonspor, Konyaspor 2-2 Karabukspor, Manisaspor 3-0 Sivasspor, Besiktas 2-1 Antalyaspor, Eskisehirspor 0-1 Gaziantepspor, Genclerbirligi 1-0 Ankaragucu, Bursaspor 1-0 Bucaspor.
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