Galatasay topples Schalke 04

After edging out German team Schalke 04 at the Veltins Arena with a 3-2 victory, Galatasaray reached the quarter-finals in the Champions League. Despite taking an early lead through Roman Neustadter, the German side was ultimately undone by strikes from Hamit Altintop and Burak Yilmaz just before the break.

Galvanized by a superb swerving strike by Hamit Altintop against his old club, the Turkish side dominated the first half. The second half was completely different, as Galatasaray sat on their lead and Schalke poured forward.

Schalke`s pressure was rewarded, when Michel Bastos scored just after the hour, but they could not find a winner and instead lost to Umut Bulut`s 94th minute breakaway effort.

Speaking after the game, Galatasaray’s Wesley Sneijder told reporters they deserved the victory. “We definitely deserved it. We made a lot of mistakes in the second half and dropped back and they made it difficult. We wanted to go for the third, but we didn`t do it and they kept pushing. I think Schalke played well but with all our team spirit, it`s a deserved victory," Sneijder said.

"We took the game under control in the first half. Both matches were close, though, and both sides had their chances. We were the luckier team today,” Altintop who scored his first goal for the club said.

The two teams drew 1-1 in the first leg in Istanbul.

Stadium: Veltins Arena

Referees: Jonas Eriksson, Mathias Klasenius, Daniel Waernmark (Sweden)

Schalke 04: Hildebrand, Howedes, Bastos, Hoger, Farfan, Pukki, Uchida, Draxler, Matip, Neustaedter, Kolasinac

Galatasaray: Muslera, Semih, Dany, Hamit, Selcuk, Melo, Riera, Sneijder, Eboue, Drogba, Burak

Scorers: min 17 Neustaedter, min 62 Bastos (Schalke 04), min 37 Hamit, min 41 Burak, min 90 Umut Bulut (Galatasaray)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013