Football United

Two second half goals from two Brazilians lifted the morale of the Fenerbahçe Republic, as we came out 2-0 winners from a tough encounter with Denizlispor. Marcio Nobre`s header and Alex de Souza`s exquisite finish after nearly conceding at the other end were left unanswered by the Denizli outfit.
Christoph Daum made two changes to the side that lost to Manchester United in midweek, replacing the injured Fatih Akyel with Önder Turacı at right back and Deniz Barış with first choice centre back Servet Çetin. Together with great backing from our fans, the team started the game passionately and with a lot more conviction than Tuesday.

Tuncay Şanlı and Ümit Özat were heavily involved from the left wing, as was Serkan Balcı on the right and Alex in the centre, who found a lot of free space behind Nobre and Pierre van Hooijdonk. The Brazilian was notably more expressive in his play, taking on players and targeting the Denizlispor goal in every possible occassion. Van Hooijdonk had the clearest chance of the first half, when Tuncay played a perfect lobbed pass in the 25th minute but the Dutchman`s control was slow and Souleymanou came out of his goal to smother the ball. Pierre tried his luck on goal four minutes from half time with an excellent first time volley from outside the area, but once again the keeper equalled to it. However, Souleymanou was well beaten seconds before half time when van Hooijdonk swerved a free-kick and missed the goal by a few centimetres.

Daum`s men neared a goal by the minute as the second half kicked-off, starting with van Hooijdonk`s free-kick which struck the upright in the 55th minute. Servet nearly scored with a header onto Alex`s corner five minutes later. Alex himself also hit the post with a fantastic left foot drive in the 65th minute. The ball finally crossed the Denizlispor goal-line in the 67th minute, when Tuncay flicked a ball back into the area from the left, finding Nobre free at the back post for him to head home, 1-0.

Fatigue started to set in for both teams, and Denizlispor could have came out advantageous in the 87th minute when a spectacular goal mouth scramble was experienced. Ersen Martin struck the first shot which was parried by substitute keeper Volkan Demirel, followed by two more attempts, cleared once by Volkan again and by our defenders on the goal-line. The ball was kept in by captain Ümit and a quick ball forward to Nobre was then played in between two defenders on to Alex`s run, who then executed a calm finish over the keeper to round off a heart-pounding minute and to effectively kill off the game with 2-0.

Fenerbahçe: Rüştü Reçber (46` Volkan Demirel), Fabio Luciano, Servet Çetin, Önder Turacı, Ümit Özat, Serkan Balcı (46`Mehmet Yozgatlı), Marco Aurelio, Alex de Souza, Tuncay Şanlı, Marcio Nobre (90` Semih Şentürk), Van Hooijdonk

Denizlispor: Suleymanou, Özgür, Kratochvil, Burak, Mustafa, Güven, Mikka, Ümit, Serhat (73` Abraham), Botha (50` Eyüp) (83` Alp), Ersen Martin

Goals: 69` Marcio Nobre, 88` Alex de Souza (Fenerbahçe)