Hamit Altintop scored a stunning long-range goal to set Galatasaray on the way to a 3-2 win at Schalke 04 on Tuesday, which sent them into the Champions League quarter-finals.
The Turkish side went through 4-3 on aggregate after handing Schalke their first defeat of the competition.
“We definitely deserved it. We made a lot of mistakes in the second half and dropped back, and they made it difficult,” Galatasaray’s Wesley Sneijder said.
“We wanted to go for the third, but we didn’t do it and they kept pushing [until we scored a third late on]. I think Schalke played well, but with all our team spirit, it’s a deserved victory,” he said.
Roman Neustaedter gave Schalke an early lead, but former Schalke man Altintop pulled the Turkish side level in the 37th minute when he collected a free-kick, and scored with a shot which swerved away from Timo Hildebrand and went in off the post.
Burak Yilmaz stunned the hosts by putting Galatasaray ahead with a breakaway goal five minutes later, his eighth of the competition.
Michel Bastos leveled for Schalke 04 just after the hour, but the Germans could not find the winner despite dominating the closing stages, with Umut Bulut snatching a win for Galatasaray in injury-time.
Galatasaray started well, with forward Didier Drogba shooting wide from outside the area in the fifth minute, and he then saw a fierce left-foot effort palmed away by Hildebrand after Sneijder slipped the ball to him on the left.
Hildebrand also did well to stop Selcuk Inan’s shot from a narrow angle.
Schalke’s opener came against the run of play when Neustaedter fired home from close-range after Galatasaray failed to clear a corner in the 17th minute.
However, the visitors continued to enjoy more possession and turned the game around in a dramatic five-minute spell.
Altintop leveled with his first goal for the club and soon afterwards a Schalke attack broke down, Albert Riera slid in and his long clearance found Yilmaz, who outmuscled Benedikt Hoewedes and flicked the ball past Hildebrand.
Galatasaray chose to sit on their lead after halftime, but the tactic backfired because they were penned into their half.
Teemu Pukki had a shot saved by Fernando Muslera at the foot of the post, Julian Draxler nearly scored after beating four defenders in a weaving run and Marco Hoeger smashed a shot against the crossbar as Schalke took control.
Michel Bastos finally leveled in the 64th minute, following another scramble in the Galatasaray area.
Muslera denied Draxler with a stunning reflex save as Schalke poured forward and Galatasaray made their progression safe late on after a breakaway.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS