Yuto Nagatomo comes out top against Shinji Kagawa in the Istanbul derby

A battle of Japan happened in the highly anticipated Istanbul derby on 5 May, where Galatasaray’s Yuto Nagatomo and Besiktas’ Shinji Kagawa took on each other in the top of the table clash in the Super Lig.

Galatasaray won the derby 2 – 0 and climbed to the league’s summit on the strength of their goal difference. They are now unbeaten in 17 league matches. Nagatomo played the full match, while Kagawa came on in the 75th minute.

In an interview after the game, a delighted Nagatomo said, “This (victory) is so valuable,” and continued, “We needed to win to stay in the championship race.”

Looking back on the match, the confident left-back said, “I was able to focus on defending today. I don’t think I was beaten once.” Nagatomo was matched up against Ricardo Quaresma when Besiktas brought him on in the 57th minute. “He’s a real quality player with lots of experience,” he said of the 35 year-old Portuguese winger. “I did not want to get bested by him, and I thought I dealt with him well.”

Nagatomo posted a tweet later: “I faced off against Shinji Kagawa in the Istanbul derby. It was quite exciting to be able to battle a fellow Japanese on such a stage. I wanted to play against him longer, but at the same time I didn’t want him to beat us. He’s top quality and a scary player. I’m glad he was on for only 15 minutes.”

Kagawa, who could not start in the derby, spoke post-match, “I had been preparing for this… so I am disappointed. Apart from that, there were no other issues and I was able to continue my good performance.”

“I had hoped to receive the ball with Adem Ljajic. We talked during the match. There were a lot more things we could have done, but there wasn’t enough time. So in that sense, I was a bit disappointed with the lack of time,” he said.

With three games remaining, both teams are still in contention for the league title.

Galatasaray 2 – 0 Besiktas

(Henry Onyekuru 44′, Fernando 54′)

P Team M W D L P 1 Galatasaray 31 18 9 4 63 2 Istanbul Basaksehir 31 18 9 4 63 3 Besiktas 31 17 8 6 59 4 Trabzonspor 30 15 8 7 53 5 Yeni Malatyaspor 31 12 8 11 44 6 Alanyaspor 30 12 6 12 42 7 Antalyaspor 31 12 6 13 42 8 Rizespor 31 9 13 9 40 9 Konyaspor 30 8 14 8 38 10 Kasimpasa 31 11 5 15 38 11 Sivasspor 31 9 10 12 37 12 Fenerbahce 31 8 13 10 37 13 Kayserispor 30 9 10 11 37 14 Ankaragucu 31 10 7 14 37 15 Goztepe 31 10 3 18 33 16 Erzurum BB 31 7 11 13 32 17 Bursaspor 31 5 15 11 30 18 Akhisar Belediyespor 31 6 7 18 25

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Source: Yahoo

Images: gettyimages