Galatasaray 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur: Welcome to Hell

Welcome to Hell. Tottenham took a team of rotated players and youngsters to Istanbul (not Constantinople) to face Galatasaray in the Europa League Group Phase, knowing that with three wins in their previous three they had the rare opportunity to take some chances in what will probably be their toughest group stage fixture. Galatasaray, after all, has Victor Osimhen, one of the best strikers in world football, and also former Tottenham central defender Davinson Sanchez, raising the profile and potential #banter level of this match considerably.

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

Tottenham brought in a few senior players at halftime, with Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur for Son Heung-Min and Brennan Johnson, and later Pape Sarr and Dominic Solanke for a mostly-ineffectual 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 challege. Spurs played valiantly down a man but couldn’t quite muster up enough offense to get a third into the back of the net. The match ended with Galatasaray winning 3-2.

Here are my quick hit match notes.

Match reactions:

• There are plenty of seething cauldrons of home support in football but away at Galatasaray is definitely up there as one of the most intimidating. What a great experience for Tottenham’s youngsters to play in that environment!
• On Yunus’ opening goal — you can maybe make the argument that Vicario makes the save 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. Pick it out, move on.
• BIG WILLY LANKS’ goal was just some nice team play. The ref did well to spot the advantage after Sonny got fouled in the buildup, and it was some excellent passing from Gray to Johnson to Lankshear for the tap-in. What a moment for him. (Shame what happened after.) Archie’s pass to Johnson was exquisite.
• You cannot, cannot, CANNOT give Victor Osimhen a chance like the one he scored (first) in the first half. A really poor 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’s on loan at Galatasaray because… reasons? IDK, it’s inexplicable. Gala’s front three – Yilmaz, Icardi, Osimhen – is just absurd, and Gala dropped off noticeably in the second half when two of them left the pitch.
• It’s not really fair to him as this was not a good showcase for his abilities, but Lucas Bergvall looked way, 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’s young and will probably be very good! He just maybe isn’t yet.
• James Maddison also had a bit of a shocker. Very wayward with his passing and maybe showed why he hasn’t been preferred in recent starting XIs lately.
• 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’s a good defender. I’m not sure he’s a good defender for US.
• A very immature sending off by Will Lankshear. Big Willy Lanks had gotten fouled with no call a few seconds earlier, saw the red mist, and went in with a wild challenge to get his second yellow. A very “Welcome to top level football, lad” moment for him — a goal and two yellows. He’ll learn from that.
• Even after going down to ten men Spurs had chances to earn a draw. Solanke’s tap in goal was nice, and Gala ended up having to sub off both Osimhen and Mauro Icardi, but Spurs couldn’t quite muster enough late offense to get the point. That said, they played very well down a man when they got some of their first team starters into the side.
• Even with the loss, Spurs are still (for now) fifth in the EL 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 comported themselves decently well. Moreover, nobody got injured. I’ll take it.