Dries Mertens played the full 90 minutes in Galatasaray’s 2-1 victory over Istanbulspor on Christmas Day. The Belgian played a number of dangerous crosses from the set piece, two of which resulted in goals.
Bafétimbi Gomis opened the scoring in the 15th minute after Mertens picked out the Frenchman with an out-swinging corner kick.
Gomis doubled Galatasaray’s lead in the 37th minute from another Mertens corner kick. The Galatasaray number 10 played a deep cross to Fredrik Midtsjø at the second post. The Norwegian midfielder played the ball back into the danger area, where Gomis pounced to make the score 2-0. That goal came five minutes after Gomis hit the bar from another Mertens cross.
The former Napoli forward thought he scored a goal of his own in the second half. Instead, he was cautioned for intentionally handling the ball before striking it into the bottom corner.
With Fenerbahçe losing to Marek Hamsik’s Trabsonspor, Galatasaray moved to the top of the Turkish Süper Lig table, with 30 points through 14 rounds.
