The first Bosphorus derby of the Turkish Super Lig season was exactly as rowdy as you’d expect with Fenerbache beating Besiktas 2-1 amid a wild flurry of disciplinary lapses.
By the final whistle, five players had been sent off by referee Ali Palabiyik, who was under siege from the off.
Guiliano and Vincent Janssen both scored penalties for Fener while Besiktas pulled on back in the last few minutes through Ryan Babel as the Dutch Cast-Offs of the Premier League (DCOPL) enjoyed their day out.
The first red card came as early as the 43rd minute when Ricardo Quaresma, two minutes after being booked for kicking out at Mathieu Valbuena, was shown a second (fairly harsh) yellow for a mistimed challenge on Mehmet Ekici.
The playing field was then levelled before half-time when Fenerbache had centre-back Luis Neto sent off for wiping out Cenk Tosun as the Besiktas forward ploughed through on goal.
A grand total of 12 yellows were administered by Palabiyik, with a late spate of three reds also being metered out for Atiba Hutchinson and Oguzhan Ozyakup (Besiktas) and Ismail Koybasi, who was dismissed in the 87th minute despite only coming on as a substitute 10 minute prior.
Indeed, the match report looked more like a scene from the Clinton’s stock room, so peppered was it with cards of every colour…
Feisty. pic.twitter.com/KqMU3bAgE1
— Seb Stafford-Bloor (@SebSB) September 23, 2017
All that, and Pepe didn’t even get a booking. Wonders will never cease.
The full highlights are here…