Great celebration after a long period of trembling: After an assist with his heel, Victor Osimhen scored the winning goal for Galatasaray against Antalyaspor – and with it the championship title for his team.
The outsider from Antalya had led twice through Soner Dikmen (45th + 3 and 62nd minute), Mario Lemina (56th) and Osimhen equalized with a penalty (66th) – then there was a big shout of celebration in Istanbul in the 88th minute. A high ball sailed into the penalty area, which Noa Lang played from the baseline with his heel into the middle. Osimhen shot with his heel towards the goal and was lucky that the ball was deflected into the net. The stadium was upside down, shortly before the end Kaan Ayhan (90th + 4) finally put the lid on it.
With one match day to go, Galatasaray were crowned Turkish champions for the 26th time. The derby win against rivals Fenerbahce (3-0) two weeks earlier had ensured the preliminary decision – now the decision has been made in a dramatic way. On the previous matchday, “Gala” had miserably missed out on the 4-1 defeat at Samsunspor, and now Ilkay Gündogan and Leroy Sané, who were in the starting line-up, also celebrated their fourth league title in a row.
Ecstasy among the Galatasaray players after the decisive goal to win the championship
The special relationship between Galatasaray and Osimhen
The fact that Osimhen made this possible with his goal is the logical consequence of this season in which the Nigerian striker was always the hero of Galatasaray. In the league he scored his 14th and 15th goals of the season in the 22nd game and in the Champions League he shot his team to the round of 16 with seven goals.
It will not be forgotten how the home fans saw Osimhen in the first leg of the round of 16 against Liverpool FC with an XXL choreographer, on which, among other things, a picture of his late mother and the lettering “We are family and family is everything” (“We are family and family is everything”) were seen, paid homage. Osimhen was moved to tears, “thank you” with the assist for the 1-0 win – and now belatedly with the heel goal for the championship title.
