Turks Abroad: Arda Assists, Bayer end Korkut’s run & Tolgay Arslan’s goalmouth madness [divider]
Arda Turan provided an assist in Atletico Madrid’s 3-0 win over Malaga on the weekend. Antoine Griezmann tapped in a cross from Turan three minutes before halftime to score the home sides second goal.
Turan tormented the Malaga defence with his forward runs, the Turkish international winger completed the highest number of dribbles (3).
The 27-year-old also made 30 passes with a 93 percent accuracy and also put in a solid defensive performance carrying out three tackles.
Over in Germany, Tayfun Korkut’s three match win streak came to an end as Bayer Leverkusen beat Hannover 96 3-1. The win saw Bayer overtake Hannover and move into fourth place on 20 points while the home side dropped one position into fifth spot.
All the goals came in a second half dominated by Bayer, Stefan Kießling, Heung-Min Son and Karim Bellarabi all scored but Turkish international Ceyhan Gülselam did score a consolation for the home sides.
Ömer Toprak started for Bayer and helped the away side keep their eighth clean sheet of the season with a solid defensive display. Hakan Çalhanoğlu was also given the start but was marked heavily by the Hannover players, no other player was tackled as many times as the Turkish international (5) over the course of the game.
Arsenal linked Tolgay Arslan was the main talking point at HSV as they beat Werder Bremen 2-0. The 24-year-old midfielder missed an open goal with a shot that hit the post but was saved his blushes when the keeper made a hash of saving the ball and parried it into his own goal.
Twenty-year old Kaan Ayhan made a brief appearance for Schalke in their 3-2 win over Wolfsburg.
Mahır Sağlık and Süleyman Koç – both of Turkish origin – scored and provided an assist, respectively in Paderborn’s 2-2 draw against Borussia Dortmund. İlkay Gündoğan summed up Dortmund’s second half by saying, “I don’t know if a Bundesliga club has ever had a worse second half than us today.”
