Galatasaray

Along with the ongoing tournaments such as the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, Primeria, the Champions League is also in progress. This league incorporates a range of clubs from all of the leagues across Europe and is a widely celebrated by fans worldwide as they cheer on their favourite soccer team once more. Currently in the group stages, the Champions League is where clubs across the globe compete on the soccer field to eventually lift the trophy at the end of the games – thus gaining Champions status.

Within this blog post we will take a look at how the tournament is panning out at the moment and what we can expect from the clubs in the coming weeks. From looking at how the matches have been scheduled and the groups picked, to the highest scoring player and team, you will find out all about this here.

How are the Teams Grouped?

After the initial play-offs had taken place prior to the scheduled group matches, the teams were whittled down to the

23rd February 2017. By Danni Biggs. 
The Turkey Football Federation Chief Yildirim Demiroren told reporters at their headquarters "This time it is our right to host the championships." Brushing the threats and concerns over security and infrastructure Turkey confirms interest to host the 2024 European Championships. On the 15th February the TFF announced their ambitions bid to be the host nation of this much-loved tournament.

The Turkish Football Federation announce being candidates to host the 2024 Euros. After losing out to stage the finals in 2008, 2012 and 2016 as well as disappointingly missing out on hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics to Tokyo, Turkey deserved to be announced as hosts, but is it the right decision?

So, can Turkey host the 17^th edition of the UEFA European Championship? When announcing an end to its pursuit of 2020 the TFF said "We believe Turkey

5th April 2016.
Turkish football fans have been hit with one piece of bad news after another, as of late. First, a February 21^st Super Lig match between Galatasaray and Trabzonspor became global news, after referee Deniz Ates Bitnel red-carded not one, not two, but four Trabzonspor players in the space of the second half. Then, Galatasaray received a two-year ban from UEFA competitions for violating Financial Fair Play rules. Next, on March 25^th, Fenerbahce became the last Turkish soccer club to exit the 2015/16 Europa League, losing 1-4 in their second-leg round of 16 match against Braga. Finally, Turkish soccer authorities were forced to cancel a March 20^th derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, due to a threat that reportedly came from ISIS.

Of course, not all of these stumbles and woes have been related in the slightest, beyond the fact that they all involved Turkish soccer. However, all four incidents do amount to what has

By Greg Lea.

It was a rule change that, in hindsight, should really have been introduced sooner. When Uefa decided in 2014 that future winners of the Europa League would automatically qualify for the following season's Champions League, the tournament was given a new dimension and its participants another incentive to take it seriously.

Sevilla were the first club to benefit from the amendment, with their 3-2 triumph over Ukranian outfit Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the final last May allowing them to enter the group stage of Europe's primary club competition this term despite only finishing fifth in La Liga. The Rojiblancos, who have won the tournament in each of the last two years and four times since 2006, are in a similar position this time around, too: ahead of the first leg of their round of 32 tie with Molde on Thursday, Sevilla's best chance of qualifying for the Champions League is by winning the Europa League once again.

In that respect, Unai Emery's

The 2015/16 season isn't treating Galatasaray very well thus far. The Turkish football club occupy the reigning champion position for the Turkish Super Lig. However, the Yellow-Reds are trailing significantly behind both Fenerbahce and Besiktas in the domestic league and have struggled so far to play at their usual levels of consistency. They even sacked their manager, Hamza Hamzao?lu, back in November, replacing him with Mustafa Denizli. So far, the shift has had little effect-clearly not the soccer club's intent.

Now, though, the Yellow-Reds are facing their biggest obstacle of the current campaign: potential sanctions for violating Financial Fair Play criteria. On Monday, January 18^th, UEFA announced that Galatasaray had failed to comply with the financial rules for the 2015/16 season. The case has now been referred to the CFCB (Club Financial Control Body), who will decide the action that should be taken to punish Galatasaray for breaking the rules. Supposedly, that

With the group stages concluded for both the 2015/16 Europa League and Champions League tournaments, UEFA announced the round of 32 draw for the UEL on Monday, December 14^th. In addition to top group stage contenders from earlier in the Europa League (like Napoli, Rapid Wien, and Tottenham Hotspur), the round of 32 will also include the third-placers from the Champions League (including football clubs like Manchester United, Olympiacos, and Bayer Leverkusen).

The combinatory nature of the Europa League knockout stage always serves to inject some extra excitement into the proceedings. However, it also serves to make the round of 32 especially harder to predict. With that in mind, we are taking a look at the draw for the round of 32 and trying to decipher which teams will progress and which teams won't.

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Galatasaray SK won their 20^th Turkish Super Lig title at the end of the 2014 2015 season-and became the first football club in league history to wear four stars on their jerseys-but you wouldn't know it from watching them this season. So far, Galatasaray struggle to succeed in the 2015 2016 campaign, the Lions have fallen significantly behind core rivals Fenerbahce and Besiktas on the Super Lig table and crashed out of the UEFA Champions League with losses against Benfica and Atletico Madrid.

In November, though, the Lions took a step that was perhaps too drastic, given the still-solid state of their league record: they sacked manager Hamza Hamzao?lu. His replacement, Mustafa Denizli, took over on November 26^th and won his first game since taking the position on December 4^th, with a 2-0 Super Lig victory over Bursaspor.

The Brief but Impressive Galatasaray Legacy of Hamza Hamzao?lu

Galatasaray SK may be the reigning champions in the Turkish Super Lig, but the football club had to come from behind to draw with rivals Fenerbahce on Sunday. The two teams are trailing in second and third place, respectively, in this year's Super Lig, as Besiktas look poised to run the table for the year. A win for either squad on Sunday would have helped level the playing field a bit. Instead, though, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce draw, leaving Besiktas four points ahead after nine weeks of competitive play.

A Long-Standing Rivalry

The Intercontinental Derby matches are always among the most anticipated games (if not the most
anticipated games) of any given Super Lig season. The rivalry dates back to January 1909 when the two football clubs met for the first time.

In the years since, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray have played one another 361 times, with the stats for the rivalry remarkably even in their split.

Only five teams have ever won the English Premier League title, but that has to do more with the relative brevity of the division's existence (the Premier League was founded in 1992) than it does with long-standing club dominance. The Turkish Super Lig, on the other hand, also has seen only five different champions, but the difference is that the Turkish football division has been going since 1959. That means the soccer league has split 57 titles five different ways. So does that make the first eight weeks of 2015/16 Turkish Super Lig play predictable?

The Turkish Super Lig is one of the more predictable competitions in European club football. The proceedings are made even more predictable by the fact that one of the five teams, Trabzonspor, hasn't won a title since 1984, while another, Bursaspor,

Both Atletico Madrid and Benfica disappointed at last year's UEFA Champions League. Atletico, fresh off a runner-up finish in 2013 2014, bowed out of the tournament in the quarterfinals, losing to the same team that had beaten them to the title the year before. Benfica, meanwhile, finished at the bottom of their group, only managing two goals and one win out of their six matches. In light of those disappointing outcomes, fans of both football clubs had plenty to be happy about on Tuesday, September 15^th. That day marked the start of the Champions League 2015 - 2016 Group C, and both Atletico Madrid and Benfica had strong starts.

Year-to-Date Improvements

Last fall, both teams kicked off the UCL on the completely wrong foot. Atletico Madrid lost 3-2 in an away
match against Greece's Olympiacos-easily one of the most surprising events of the competition. The Mattress Makers would go undefeated for the rest of