{"id":266211,"date":"2026-01-27T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/266211\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:00:06","slug":"galatasaray-how-premier-league-turkish-team-can-derail-man-citys-champions-league-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/266211\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatasaray: How &#8216;Premier League&#8217; Turkish team can derail Man City&#8217;s Champions League bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Needing a positive result to avoid the Champions League knockout play-offs, Galatasaray are not the side Manchester City would choose to face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In four recent meetings between Premier League clubs and the Turkish giants, Galatasaray are unbeaten. You must go back to December 2014 \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/29363845\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a 4-1 win for Arsenal in Istanbul<\/a> \u2013 for the last time an English side triumphed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2023, Galatasaray finished above Manchester United in their Champions League group \u2013 sending Erik ten Hag&#8217;s men packing in last place \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/66984888\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thanks to a 3-2 win<\/a> in their most recent visit to the north-west before taking on Manchester City this Wednesday (20:00 GMT).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/67558692\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A chaotic 3-3 draw in Turkey followed.<\/a> Then last season, they inflicted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/live\/ckg7rgz7k4zt\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the only Europa League group phase defeat<\/a> on eventual champions Tottenham.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Most recently, earlier in this Champions League campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c80g978g0ezo\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Galatasaray outplayed an off-colour Liverpool<\/a> to win 1-0 thanks to Victor Osimhen&#8217;s first half penalty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So why do Cimbom \u2013 the enigmatic nickname for Turkey&#8217;s most successful football club \u2013 have such a good record against English teams?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to assistant manager Ismael Garcia Gomez, it is because the Turkish league is the most English outside England \u2013 and Galatasaray is the most English Turkish club of all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think sometimes with the more dynamic, transitional games we face against teams from England, we are very used to that,&#8221; Garcia Gomez told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The Turkish league is not at the same level, but we are more Premier League than all other European leagues, more than Italy and Spain where the tempo is lower. English teams, the ones we face, we feel comfortable because they are open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I have never had the experience of working in English men&#8217;s football, but I have experienced it as a fan. England is for the fans, the football for fans is the best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;But Turkey, it has nothing to be jealous about. The atmosphere created in stadiums is amazing, I was fortunate enough to work across Europe, and the passion here is at the same level as any country we can name.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Needing a positive result to avoid the Champions League knockout play-offs, Galatasaray are not the side Manchester City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-266211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}