Two former Manchester United managers may have thought they were bystanders in the race for the Turkish Super Lig this season as unbeaten Galatasaray were six points clear going into this weekend’s game.
That was until Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Besiktas became the first side to beat the champions with a 2-1 win on Saturday.
Besiktas were never in the title race – a reason why the Norwegian Solskjaer got the job in January, but Jose Mourinho had already moved to Turkey at the start of the season, tasked with leading Fenerbahce to a first title since 2014. Mourinho will be delighted that Solskjaer’s team triumphed, opening up a title race.
“A very good game of football,” said Solskjaer after the match played in a febrile atmosphere on the banks of the Bosphorus.
“I thought we played well the first 30 minutes until they had one man sent off. I don’t like to play against nine or 10 men, we’re better against 11 and we dropped a little bit, but when they scored we did well to dominate the game and we defended well.
“It was a fantastic team effort. Good preparations, good focus and then 100 minutes of hard work. It’s difficult and hard to beat the top teams and they are a very good team.”
After an exceptional start when he won eight of his opening ten games, Solsksjaer’s team lost two matches before the international break, one against Konyaspor.
“Football is complex,” he said. “You’re always up against an opponent – and today, we knew it’d be an open game. Look at the Konya match, it was surreal that we didn’t score.
“We spent 60 minutes inside their 18 yard box. Football can be about luck and random. But we’ve got to grow so luck doesn’t decide things.
“We can’t rely on counter attacks or luck, we need to dominate games and that takes hard work. Let’s finish the league strong and plan the next season the right way.
“My job is to improve the attack and score more goals. Our defensive record has been one of the best in the league but we don’t score enough goals”.
Besiktas scored a goal in either half from Rafa Silva and Gedson Fernandes, while both teams had a man sent off – Galatasaray’s Przemyslaw Frankowski after only 36 minutes.
Despite having Ciro Immobile, the Italian striker who is by far his best paid player, Solskjaer did not play with a striker but instead chose Rafa Silva in a false nine position.
“Ciro is important for the team, he’s a top professional who is important on and off the pitch where he has a great presence,” said Solskjaer. “But before today I had to sit down with him and explain why I left him out. It was tactical.
“I wanted to play with four players for a fluid rotation. I was a number nine and it’s the first time as a coach that I’ve played with no number nine, but we won and I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Besiktas were worthy of their win, but they are still 24 points behind the leaders. The club were seventh when Solskjaer took charge in January and he’s taken them to fourth – which would be sufficient to achieve his current aim: European football next season. Samsunspor, the team in third, lost at home making it a very good weekend for Besiktas.
Above them, Galatasaray remain six points clear at the top having played second placed Fenerbahce home and away.
Mourinho's side, who won 4-2 at Bodrum on Friday, are six points behind but have a game in hand. They also boast a slightly superior goal difference.
The leading two won’t have to wait long to size each other up again – they meet on Wednesday in the quarter-final of the Turkish Cup at Fenerbahce’s sure to be red-hot home ground. Then Galatasaray must travel to third placed Samsunspor in their next league game.
The fact Turkey’s top three teams were eliminated from European competition in the last month, leaves them free to focus on domestic matters. Besiktas, the Turkish cup holders, are at home to Goztepe in the cup quarter-finals on Thursday.
Galatasaray’s defeat could be significant since the margins for error at the top of the Turkish league are so small.
They won the title last season with an astonishing 102 points and second placed Fenerbahce got 99. That’s why Mourinho was brought in and given the task of winning a first league title since 2014.
It looked onerous from the start and Galatasaray’s 3-1 win at Fenerbahce in September gave them a comfortable lead which they’ve never let slip.
Solskjaer has yet to speak to Mourinho since he arrived in Turkey. He has no interest in becoming embroiled in any public spats and wants to focus on his own team, but the pair will come face to face on May 4 when Fenerbahce welcome Besiktas in their penultimate league game.
If they are to win the title, it will almost certainly be a game that Fenerbahce will need all three points. Yet Besiktas defeated them earlier in the season and, given what they did on Saturday, have the capabilities for another shock result.
ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Results
ATP Dubai Championships on Monday (x indicates seed):
First round
Roger Federer (SUI x2) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
Fernando Verdasco (ESP) bt Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Marton Fucsovics (HUN) bt Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 6-1, 7-6 (7/5)
Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) bt Karen Khachanov (RUS x4) 6-4, 6-1
Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt Milos Raonic (CAN x7) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
65
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EScott%20Beck%2C%20Bryan%20Woods%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAdam%20Driver%2C%20Ariana%20Greenblatt%2C%20Chloe%20Coleman%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
STAY%2C%20DAUGHTER
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAuthor%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EYasmin%20Azad%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESwift%20Press%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 575bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh554,000
On sale: now
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3EFounder%3A%20Hani%20Abu%20Ghazaleh%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20with%20an%20office%20in%20Montreal%3Cbr%3EFounded%3A%202018%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20Virtual%20Reality%3Cbr%3EInvestment%20raised%3A%20%241.2%20million%2C%20and%20nearing%20close%20of%20%245%20million%20new%20funding%20round%3Cbr%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%2012%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
More from Aya Iskandarani
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
MATCH INFO
Qalandars 112-4 (10 ovs)
Banton 53 no
Northern Warriors 46 all out (9 ovs)
Kumara 3-10, Garton 3-10, Jordan 2-2, Prasanna 2-7
Qalandars win by six wickets
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
Ukraine
Capital: Kiev
Population: 44.13 million
Armed conflict in Donbass
Russia-backed fighters control territory
The%C2%A0specs%20
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E6-cylinder%2C%204.8-litre%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E5-speed%20automatic%20and%20manual%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E280%20brake%20horsepower%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E451Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh153%2C00%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
