Mustafa Denizli, who led Turkey to the Euro2000 quarter-finals and won championships with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, is the current head coach at 12-time champions Besiktas...
Mustafa Denizli, who led Turkey to the Euro2000 quarter-finals and won championships with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, is the current head coach at 12-time champions Besiktas...
Mustafa Denizli, who led Turkey to the Euro2000 quarter-finals and won championships with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, is the current head coach at 12-time champions Besiktas Istanbul. And he will be stalking the sidelines today - Thursday, 15 January 2009 - at 6:30 p.m. in Kundu, where Besiktas Istanbul will be Werder's opponent in their third test match during their training camp in the Turkish Riviera.
Besiktas are not exactly unknowns for Bremen regarding past test matches. In January 2006, Ailton scored a hat-trick against his former team in a 3-2 victory despite goals by Ivan Klasnic and Miroslav Klose for the Green-Whites. One year later, Werder more than made up for the loss one year earlier with a convincing 4-0 victory on goals by Hugo Almeida (two scores), Miroslav Klose and Naldo. Ailton had since transferred to Grashoppers Zürich.
Besiktas has seen a drastic fluctuation of players in the 24 months since the last meeting. Two absolute leaders were with Besiktas back then but not in dress against Bremen: Brazilian forward Bobo, who has scored 53 goals for the Black-Whites since 2006, and Argentinean team captain Matias Delgado.
Denizli's men currently are ranked sixth place in the championship, six points behind leaders Sivasspor - not close enough to be really pleased and not far enough away to be concerned. And the picture of the past decade is very similar. Besiktas this decade seems like the declining talisman of the three-headed Istanbul elite circus. Still, Besiktas are not any less dangerous of an opponent than city rivals Galatasaray a couple days ago. Hopefully though this contest ends with a different scoreline...
