Gençlerbirliği 0-1 Fenerbahçe
Pierre van Hooijdonk`s clever finish and two goal line clearances played a large part in our difficult 1-0 away victory against Gençlerbirliği.
Minutes before kick-off, the heavy snowfall returned to cover the pitch and call for the orange ball. Both teams found it hard to play their usual football as the game turned into a battle of the strongest. It was obvious that the hardest working team would take the three points from this encounter.
Recep took his place in goal to replace the injured Volkan, while Ali Güneş played at left back; the only changes from last week`s derby victory.
Gençlerbirliği fielded a strong side despite their upcoming game against Valencia and continued their all out attack style of play. However, Christoph Daum`s tactics were to attack back at the Ankara side and force them back. Tuncay came close to scoring the first goal with a volley from outside the area in the 14th minute which went slightly over the bar.
Van Hooijdonk frequently helped out his defence to clear Gençler`s high balls, but his biggest contribution came with a goal line clearance in the 21st minute. Three minutes later he was in the right place at the right time once again, as he run in to pick up a loose ball that came off Marcio Nobre who blocked Botonjic`s late clearance. The Dutchman bore down on goal and dinked the ball over the diving Botonjic to put us ahead.
The home side increased their pressure after the goal and mostly attacked from the right wing through Ali Tandoğan. Van Hooijdonk was back helping his defence once again and made another goal line clearance four minutes before the break, after Recep flapped a cross and Mustafa Özkan struck the unclaimed ball.
The second 45 rarely featured a Fenerbahçe attack as Gençlerbirliği pushed us back to defend. Recep was called to make some good reflex saves, particularly in the 80th minute when a double save after Veysel`s header hit the post kept us in the game. Mustafa Özkan did score the rebound but the assistant referee judged him to be offside.
Misplaced passes didn`t help our cause in the dying minutes of the game, giving away hard earned possession to an eager Gençler team. The scoreline was defended, however, and we came away with three points from one of the toughest games on the fixture list to maintain our top spot in the league.
Gençlerbirliği: Botanjiç, El Saka, Ümit (54` Veysel), Erkan, Filip, Serkan, Skoko, Deniz, Ali , Youla (85` M`Bayo), Mustafa Özkan
Fenerbahçe: Recep Biler, Fatih Akyel, Fabio Luciano, Stjepan Tomas, Ali Güneş, Ümit Özat, Marco Aurelio (71` Sergei Rebrov), Mehmet Yozgatlı, Tuncay Şanlı (85` Kemal Aslan), Marcio Nobre, Pierre van Hooijdonk
Goals: 24` Pierre van Hooijdonk
Source: Fenerbahçe.org
