Süper Lig: Lemina steps in to finish off victory for Osimhen-less Galatasaray

Galatasaray maintained their push for a Turkish Süper Lig title defense on Wednesday with Mario Lemina scoring in a 3-1 victory at Göztepe.

The Gabonese midfielder placed his header perfectly from a Gabriel Sara corner kick in the 75th minute to put the visitors beyond reach, completing a successful bounce back from their defeat at Trabzonspor over the weekend.

The reigning champions got off to a strong start and asserted control of the match early on. Without Osimhen, the goal scoring duties fell to Barış Alper Yılmaz and the Turkish national team forward promptly obliged. In an early sign of how important set pieces would be, Yılmaz leaped to meet a free kick service from Leroy Sané to put his team ahead inside the opening five minutes.

A disastrous start for Göztepe was confirmed in the 19th minute when İlkay Gündoğan’s cross took a dramatic deflection off defender Allan Godói and looped over the head of goalkeeper Mateusz Lis for the second.

Tense second half for the Süper Lig leaders

The hosts were a much improved side after halftime and pulled a goal back before five minutes elapsed. Tanzania national team star Novatus Miroshi whipped in a perfect cross and Juan Santos produced yet another headed goal, this in favor of Göztepe.

And that led to a tight finish for the league leaders. Miroshi sparked a counter-attack in the 59th minute but Janderson somehow missed a tap-in at the far post after being excellently set up by compatriot Santos.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by beIN SPORTS Türkiye (@beinsportstr)

And the crucial miss set the stage for a frustrating conclusion for the hosts, with Lemina’s clinical header arriving to deal a devastating blow. The Gabon national team star played the full match and was influential on both ends of the pitch while completing over 90% of his passes.

Galatasaray are now four points clear of Istanbul rivals and closest contenders Fenerbahçe as well as Trabzonspor, who are tied on 63 points.