Fenerbahçe 3-1 Ankaragücü
Substitute Semih Şentürk`s goal and Pierre van Hooijdonk`s double replied to Ankaragücü`s first half goal to earn us a 3-1 win in front of our home fans tonight. We lead the title race with two weeks to go.
The crowd urged the side on from the very first second but the first 15 minutes saw little danger caused for Ankaragücü. The visitors disturbed our midfield and looked to counter attack with swift passing.
A Pierre van Hooijdonk freekick was the closest we came to scoring as his effort was palmed away by young keeper Orkun for a corner in the 17th minute.
Two minutes later Ankaragücü`s own freekick expert found the target with his side`s first shot on goal, powering into Volkan`s top left hand corner.
Something had to change to regain superiority in midfield, and Christoph Daum switched to a three man defence to bolster the midfield. Some improvement could be seen, as Mehmet Yozgatlı was given more opportunities to pierce Ankara`s left wing. His pacey entrance into the box from the right was followed by a shot that was well saved by Orkun.
Tuncay was struggling for most of the first half, which prompted Daum to replace him with Semih at half time. The change paid off almost immediately, as Semih kneed in a deflected ball from a corner to equalise in the first minutes of the second half.
A long distance freekick from van Hooijdonk bounced once in the box and went in at the far post in the 53rd minute, giving us the lead in a thrilling battle against a tough Ankaragücü side. The Saraçoğlu roared with delight as Pierre celebrated his 21st goal of the season.
Had Semih controlled better or released a first time shot with his left foot he could have extended our lead in the 65th minute, but Erhan Albayrak quickly intervened to capitalise on his mistake.
The remainder of the game turned into a fight of the fittest, with some of Ankaragücü`s older players dropping out of play.
Van Hooijdonk rounded off the game with a bullet header in the 88th minute onto a corner and scored his 22nd goal of the season.
Servet Çetin came on in the dying seconds, and his break into the opposition area started an attack which continued with van Hooijdonk`s pass to Marcio Nobre in a good position, but his shot wen straight into Orkun`s hands.
Trabzonspor played at the same time away against Gaziantepspor, winning 2-1, which takes the race into the last two weeks of the season. We`re still two points ahead with a trip to Denizlispor and a final home game against Malatyaspor ahead.
Fenerbahçe: Volkan Demirel, Fabio Luciano, Ümit Özat, Stjepan Tomas, Ali Güneş, Selçuk Şahin, Mehmet Yozgatlı (90` Servet Çetin), Tuncay Şanlı (46` Semih Şentürk), Marco Aurelio, Marcio Nobre (90+3` Sergei Rebrov), Pierre Van Hooijdonk
Ankaragücü: Orkun, Baidou, Gökmen, El Desouki, Adem, Yılmaz (87` Özgür), İsmet (81` Mehmet), Umut, Erhan, Hakan Keleş, Hüseyin (77` Ceyhun)
Goals: 47` Semih, 53`, 88` Pierre van Hooijdonk (Fenerbahçe), 20` Yılmaz (Ankaragücü)
Source: Fenerbahçe.org
