Galatasaray 3-1 Kasımpaşa: volume rose, but the manner leaves questions

Galatasaray beat Kasımpaşa 3-1 at RAMS Park on Friday, October 9, 2026, and the scoreline will be filed as a recovery. The context is a 4-0 away loss to Trabzonspor in their previous league match, in which Mohamed Salah scored a hat-trick. Before this game Galatasaray were second with 13 points from six matches — four wins, one draw, one loss — while Kasımpaşa were eighth on 10 points and the only unbeaten team in the Süper Lig. The result keeps the points return on track. Whether the performance did is a different question.

Start with the raw output. Galatasaray had 63 per cent possession, 25 shots to Kasımpaşa's nine, 11 on target to three, five big chances to two, and eight corners to one. They recorded 49 touches in the opposition box, against an average of 31.4 across their earlier matches this season in all competitions, and generated 2.4 expected goals against an average of 1.89. Set-piece expected goals alone came to 1.17, against an earlier average of 0.63.

But the goals scored minus expected goals figure was 0.6 here, against an average of 0.0 across those earlier matches. In plain terms: this was a performance that produced more chances than usual and finished slightly above what those chances were worth. That is not the same as a controlled, convincing win, and the match state explains why.

Abdülkerim Bardakcı headed Galatasaray ahead in the 45th minute from Aleksey Batrakov's free-kick. Lucas Torreira was sent off in the 65th minute after a VAR review upgraded his yellow card to red for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. Kasımpaşa equalised three minutes later through Jesurun Rak-Sakyi. For a period Galatasaray were defending a one-goal swing with ten men. Victor Osimhen returned from a groin injury and provided an assist.

Both can be true. What the data cannot settle is how much of the late surge was Galatasaray's quality and how much was Kasımpaşa's game management collapsing in the closing stages. That is a question the next matches will answer, not this one.

This is where the process-versus-points read gets complicated. The points return under Okan Buruk this season is 2.17 per game over six matches, well below the 2.68 per game across the 38-game 2023/2024 league campaign. That comparison spans different seasons and different squads, and the current sample is six games — far too short to call a trend. The summer signings — Lesley Ugochukwu, Renato Nhaga, El Chadaille Bitshiabu, Deniz Gül, Rafael Leão and Aleksey Batrakov — and the departures of Victor Nelsson, Nicolò Zaniolo and Ali Efe Çördek mean this is not the same team that posted those 2023/2024 numbers. The 4-2-3-1 shape on Friday is a candidate explanation for how the side managed space, but one match cannot confirm it.

Kasımpaşa's unbeaten start is now over. Whether that start was sustainable is a question their next matches will answer, not this one.

For Galatasaray, the honest summary is this: the volume rose, the points arrived, and the manner of the win — a red card, an equaliser, two goals in the 90th minute — means the underlying performance remains an open question. The next few matches, not this scoreline, will settle it.

- [FotMob](https://www.fotmob.com) - [punchng.com](https://punchng.com/osimhen-assists-on-injury-return-as-10-man-galatasaray-win-3-1/) - [sports.yahoo.com](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/galatasaray-vs-kas-mpa-starting-150157631.html)