Galatasaray 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur: Welcome to hell

Welcome to hell. Tottenham took a squad of rotated players and youngsters to Istanbul (not Constantinople) to face Galatasaray in the Europa League group stage, knowing that with three wins in their previous three they had the rare opportunity to take some chances in what is likely to be will be their most difficult group stage. After all, Galatasaray have Victor Osimhen, one of the best strikers in world football, and also ex-Tottenham central defender Davinson Sanchez, raising the profile and potential #banter level of this match considerably.

And Galatasaray showed why they are currently the top scoring team in the competition after Yunus Akgun volleyed home past Fraser Forster to put the home side 1-0 up early on. Tottenham academy product and future star William “BIG WILLY LANKS” Lankshear got Spurs level, scoring his first senior goal for the club, but Osimhen proved why he is so highly regarded, scoring a brace to take Galatasaray into the dressing room with a 3-1 lead.

Tottenham brought in a couple of senior players at the break, with Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur for Son Heung-Min and Brennan Johnson, and later Pape Sarr and Dominic Solanke for a mostly ineffective Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison. Solanke tapped in a low Pedro Porro cross to cut the lead to 3-2 after Lankshear lost his head and picked up a second yellow to be sent off for a rash challenge. Spurs bravely played a man down, but couldn’t quite muster enough offense to get a third in the net. The match ended with Galatasaray winning 3-2.

Here are my quick hit match notes.

Match Reactions:

• There are plenty of sizzling pots of home support in football, but away at Galatasaray is definitely one of the scariest. What a fantastic experience for Tottenham’s youngsters to play in that environment!
• On Yunus’ opening goal — you might make the argument that Vicario saves when Forster doesn’t, but there was some serious venom on that shot, so I won’t make that argument. It was just a banger. Choose it, move on.
• BIG WILLY LANKS’ goal was just some great team play. The referee spotted the advantage after Sonny was fouled in the build-up and it was some excellent passes from Gray to Johnson to Lankshear for the tap-in. What a moment for him. (Shame what happened next.) Archie’s pass to Johnson was exquisite.
• You can’t, can’t, CAN’T give Victor Osimhen a chance like the one he scored (first) in the first half. A really bad defensive pass out of the back by Dragusin set it all up and when Osimhen gets a chance like that, he rarely misses.
• Osimhen is one of the best strikers in world football and he is on loan to Galatasaray because… reasons? IDK, it’s inexplicable. Gala’s front three – Yilmaz, Icardi, Osimhen – are just absurd, and Gala dropped noticeably in the second half when two of them left the field.
• It’s not really fair to him as this wasn’t a good showcase for his skills, but Lucas Bergvall looked way out of his depth on this one. He was probably Spurs’ worst player out there. A harsh assessment, but I’m starting to think he’s just not ready for football at this level. Which is fine! He is young and will probably be very good! Maybe he isn’t yet.
• James Maddison also had a bit of a shocker. Very opinionated with his passing and perhaps showed why he has not been preferred in recent starting XIs of late.
• Dragusin another who did not cover himself with glory. Really struggled to play out of the back and Osimhen had him on skates a number of times. I think he is a good defender. I’m not sure he’s a good defender for the United States.
• A very immature send off by Will Lankshear. Big Willy Lanks had been fouled without a call a few seconds earlier, saw the red fog and went in with a wild challenge to get his second yellow. A very “Welcome to top level football, kid” moment for him – a goal and two yellows. He will learn from that.
• Even after going down to ten men, Spurs had chances to earn a draw. Solanke’s pressure in the goal was great, and Gala ended up having to sub off both Osimhen and Mauro Icardi, but Spurs couldn’t quite muster enough late attack to get the point. That said, they played down a man very well as they got some of their first team starters into the side.
• Even with the loss, Spurs are still (so far) fifth in the EC standings, with Galatasaray on top. That’s why I say this is a free hit — a loss doesn’t really hurt them here, they got some of their fringe players some needed minutes, and composed themselves decently well. Also, no one was injured. I’ll take it.