Osimhen sets the tone as Galatasaray edge Başakşehir in five-goal Super Lig fight

Victor Osimhen needed only sixteen minutes to announce himself at the Başakşehir Fatih Terim Stadyumu. Lucas Torreira picked him out inside the box and the striker finished right-footed, a low-value shot in expected-goals terms at 0.10 but enough to make it 1–0 to Galatasaray in this Super Lig fixture. The opener was the cleanest reflection of how the first half ran: Galatasaray's better chance creation, Başakşehir's flatter numbers.

The visitors finished the half with 0.97 xG to Başakşehir's 0.32, four shots on target to one, and two big chances created. Torreira, the architect of the opening goal, was the connective thread in midfield, while Ismail Jakobs and Leroy Sané stretched the width. Osimhen, whose night would be cut short, still finished with 0.78 xG, three shots on target and a 7.63 rating, the individual high across both sides. He departed at the break with Galatasaray protecting a 1–0 lead and Okan Buruk making the swap for Barış Alper Yılmaz, a concession rather than a panic move.

The second half turned on a ten-minute burst and a pair of set-pieces. Başakşehir came out with sharper lines and forced the issue, lifting their xG by 1.08 from the first period to finish the half on 1.40. Eldor Shomurodov won and converted a 66th-minute penalty, an xG of 0.79, to drag the hosts level at 1–1 and push the stadium back into the game.

Galatasaray's response was quick and decisive. Five minutes later Torreira arrived on a Jakobs delivery and finished right-footed, an xG of 0.52, to restore the away lead. The decisive blow came from a set-piece in the 76th minute, when Davinson Sánchez turned the ball into his own net from a Galatasaray corner. The hosts refused to fold, but the pattern of the evening was already set: Galatasaray's dead-ball threat, Başakşehir's resilience without the cutting edge.

Gabriel Sara's left-footed free-kick in the 90th minute, an xG of 0.13, killed off any lingering Başakşehir comeback and confirmed Galatasaray's 2–3 win on the road. The closing stat line is honest with the score: 1.72 xG to 2.03 in the visitors' favour, 12 shots to 13, three on target to six, and 22 touches in the box to 24. Possession sat almost perfectly even at 48–52.

The substitutions told their own story. Buruk used the interval to reshape Galatasaray, replacing Osimhen with Barış Alper Yılmaz and Mario Lemina with Abdülkerim Bardakcı; later he sent on Rafael Leão for Aleksey Batrakov in the 68th minute, a move that coincided with Galatasaray's second goal within three minutes. Başakşehir responded with a triple change in the 63rd and 74th minutes, Opéri off for Saba Kharebashvili, Fayzullayev and Kaluzinski replaced by Brnic and Bozok, and finally Skov Olsen and Şahiner off in the 83rd for Karbownik and Ba. The volume of changes, ten in total, underlines how stretched the tactical picture was after the break.

Galatasaray leave Istanbul with three points their underlying numbers support, even if the final goal margin flattered them only slightly. Osimhen's cameo, Torreira's double contribution of a goal and an assist, and a set-piece double from Sánchez's own goal and Sara's late free-kick together did enough to outlast a Başakşehir side whose second-half fight deserved more than a second defeat of the season.

FotMob.