Bursa seizes advantage.. Bursaspor:3 Twente:1 |
 Turkey's Bursaspor soccer club defeated the Netherlands' Twente 3-1 in UEFA Europa League play-off round first leg in the northwestern province of Bursa.
Bursaspor gained a commanding position against Dutch side Twente to get a pass to the Europa League group stage with a 3-1 victory at home while Trabzonspor was held to a 0-0 draw by Hungary's Videoton despite being a favorite to win on Thursday evening.
Bursaspor started the game off on a good note, developing attacks to score, but missed three glaring chances in the early minutes of the game. In the 31st minute, Twente scored to take a 1-0 lead with Nacer Chadli. After eight minutes Bursaspor responded with Pablo Batalla. The second half was dominated by the Turkish team. In the 53rd minute Stanislav Sestak scored the second goal for Bursa. In the 81st minute Batalla set the score of the game with a header goal, 3-1, and relieved his team for the second leg game on Aug. 30.
Bursaspor coach Ertuğrul Sağlam was not celebratory, but rather cautious after the match, saying they have not yet qualified for the Europa League. “It's true that we gained an advantage but we have seen before that early celebrations are irrational,” he said at a post-game press conference. The man of the game, Batalla said it was a beautiful game and he is happy to play for the fans of Bursaspor.
The victory came with a price, however. Defender Serdar Aziz will be sidelined for four to six weeks due to an injury he sustained in the early minutes of the Twente match.
Twente coach Steve McClaren in post-match comments to the Dutch media said the home match in the town of Enschede in the north of the Netherlands will be a hard, but not an insurmountable task. “We will have to close ranks and score at least two goals,” the English coach said. “This [scoring twice] is possible, but it will be difficult. I am counting on a similar atmosphere like here in Turkey. However, next time around the crowd will be on our side.”
Twente is one of the most successful teams in the top Dutch football league and was the champion in the 2009-2010 season.
Stadium: Ataturk
Referees: Davit Fernandez Borbalan, Raul Cabanero Martinez, Jorge Canelo Prieto (Spain)
Bursaspor: Carson, Basser, Serdar (min. 9 Omer), Ibrahim, Vederson, Sestak (min. 69 Forsell), N'Diaye, Musa, Ozan, Batalla (min. 90+1 Ferhat), Pinto
Twente: Nikolay, Bjelland, Schilder, Brama (min. 62 Gutierrez), Fer, Tadic, Janssen, Rosales, Franco, Chadli (min. 80 Bulykin), Castaignos (min. 71 Verhoek)
Scorers: min. 39 and 81 Batalla, min. 53 Sestak (Bursaspor), min. 31 Chadli (Twente)
Bursaspor.net & Grup çeynç
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