Nigeria’s Oghenekaro Etebo The Scapegoat Of Galatasaray’s Super Lig Defeat

The Super Eagles midfielder’s brilliance had seen him become a regular starter for the Turkish giants, but he is the scapegoat of his team’s home defeat in the league on Monday

Galatasaray’s head coach Fatih Terim has pointed at Oghenekaro Etebo’s first-half sending off as the chief reason his men failed to pick a positive result in their 2-1 defeat to Alanyaspor during their latest Super Lig match.

Galatasaray were aware they faced a difficult opponent in Alanyaspor when they hosted their guests – who had lost none of their previous four games – at the Türk Telekom Stadıum.

But the Istanbul Lions got their night to a perfect start when ageless Uruguayan forward Radamel Falcao blasted home a 34th-minute penalty.

It soon turned sour for the home side, though, when Senegalese striker Khouma Babacar fired home a 43rd-minute equaliser.

Shortly after, Super Eagles ace Etebo was dismissed for a second bookable offence for an ‘unnecessary foul’. The Nigeria international, on loan from Stoke City, had picked his first booking of the evening on the half-hour mark.

Alanyaspor compiled the misery of their hosts with a 90th-minute winner to condemn Galatasaray to their second defeat of the five match-day-old league campaign.

Speaking after the encounter, in quotes carried by Habersiz, coach Terim slammed Etebo, whose dismissal shaped the outcome of the game.

“You are ahead, stay 11, if you want, get in a draw,” the veteran tactician said.

“Unfortunately, the second yellow card is one of the actions of our player (Etebo) that is not very professional. When it happens to us, the cards come out quickly. It’s not easy to play missing one. Despite this, we struggled. Unfortunately, it did not happen.

“We cannot avoid individual mistakes. You lose when there are so many individual mistakes at this level. I’m sorry, of course. I’m very sorry.”

Etebo, 24, has been featured in four league games and two Europa League qualifying matches for Galatasaray since joining from English Championship side Stoke City in early September.