Stats Perform
·18 September 2018
Stats Perform
·18 September 2018
Garry Rodrigues, Eren Derdiyok and Selcuk Inan were on target as Galatasaray opened their Champions League Group D campaign with a 3-0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow.
The Turkish side started ferociously in front of a partisan home crowd and took a deserved lead inside the opening 10 minutes when Cape Verde international Garry Rodrigues scored from distance.
Lokomotiv twice came close to equalising through Solomon Kvirkvelia and Jefferson Farfan as Galatasaray looked like they might be punished for failing to double down on their early dominance.
Derdiyok had other ideas, though, whipping in a superb free-kick from 25 yards in the 67th minute before Inan netted a penalty in stoppage time after Emre Akbaba had been brought down in the area.
Not even the late dismissal of Badou Ndiaye for two bookings could take the shine off a fine night for Fatih Terim's side, who open their Champions League campaign with a flourish.
The hosts started with a spring in their step and opened the scoring after nine minutes when Rodrigues' low shot from outside the penalty area powered through Guilherme's less-than robust resistance.
The Russian champions recovered well from those early wobbles and carved out a number of opportunities of their own as the first half wore on. Kvirkvelia saw a close-range effort cleared off the line and then an unmarked Farfan headed over from six yards when it looked easier to score.
The sides exchanged quick-fire chances shortly after the restart, Aleksey Miranchuk's fizzing effort palmed away by Fernando Muslera and Guilherme tipping over Badou Ndiaye's thunderous drive from 30 yards.
There was little Guilherme could do about Galatasaray's second, though, as Derdiyok's free-kick found the net.
Ndiaye received his marching orders three minutes from time for a rash second booking, but that did not stop the hosts adding a third deep into added time from the spot after Guilherme tripped Akbaba to abruptly end a flowing counter-attack.