Achilles Cup - Match Day 1 Reports

The inaugural Achilles Cup got underway last night with bitter rivals from Turkey battling with their sole neighbour from Greece to be able to claim bragging rights as the Aegean Champions.

Besiktas 2 - Galatasaray 1

The  Ataturk stadium hosted the game between near neighbours Besiktas of Division 3 and Galatasaray from Division 2, it promised to be a feisty affair and proved so with five players ending up in the refs notebook and a number lucky they didn’t find themselves down the tunnel before the end of the game.

In an evenly balanced first half a Vazquez strike on 39 minutes separated the two protagonists at half time when he floated a shot from the edge of the penalty area over Muslera leaving him stranded in the Galatasary goal.

That spurred the visitors into action and in the second half they came out more purposefully forcing Besiktas onto the back foot. Zengin who had pulled off a string of fine saves was finally beaten on 67 minutes when Podolski struck a fine first time shot from a ball laid through by Adin that gave the keeper no chance.

The visitors hardly had time to finish celebrating the equaliser when within a minute Vazquez turned provider and set up Toivonen to restore the hosts lead.

Galatasaray threw everything forward looking for an equaliser but couldn’t breach the home defence who were excellently marshalled by Zengin who continued to thwart the visitors and earn himself the man of the match.

On the balance of play Fred Dodger and his Cimbom will count themselves extremely unlucky not to have come away with at least a point from this encounter and will rue not making the most of their opportunities whilst Gerrit Vogeleer will be delighted in how clinical his Besiktas side were in making the most of the few opportunities they created.

Olympiacos 1 - Fenerbahce 1

Meanwhile in the cups other fixture Fenerbahce crossed the Aegean to the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium to take on Olympiacos.

The hosts made light of the gulf of four divisions between the two and put in a stalwart performance to match the visitors in this evenly balanced if somewhat dour encounter.

The Greeks came out of the traps quickly with Maniatis setting up Gouweleeuw two drill a shot into the top corner from fully 25 yards on 6 minutes.

The half was more tactical than enthralling with few other opportunities being created the notable exception being a late effort from Sow which Roberto dealt with comfortably.

The second half continued in a similar vein to the first with few direct threats at goal until the hour mark when Potuk whipped in a free kick for the Turks and Martinez was first to react clipping it passed the stranded Roberto for the equaliser.

This seemed to liven up both teams with Elabdellaui and Pavoletti being foiled by Casilla in the Fenerbahce goal whilst Roberto kept out decent attempts from Potuk and Martinez.

The game petered out in the last 10 minutes with both sides appearing content to share the points.

Both managers will come away disappointed with the lack of goal threat posed and no doubt the Greeks will be the happier with a share of the spoils.