Galatasaray: How the Turkish Premier League team could derail Manchester City’s Champions League bid

Needing a positive result to avoid Champions League qualification, Galatasaray are not the team Manchester City would choose to face.

In four recent meetings between Premier League clubs and the Turkish giants, Galatasaray are unbeaten. You have to go back to December 2014 – when Arsenal won 4-1 in Istanbul – for the last time an English team triumphed.

In 2023, Galatasaray finished above Manchester United in their Champions League group – sending Erik ten Hag’s men into last place – thanks to a 3-2 win on their final visit to the north-west before facing Manchester City on Wednesday (20:00 GMT).

This was followed by a chaotic 3-3 draw in Türkiye. Then last season, they inflicted their only Europa League group stage defeat to league champions Tottenham.

Most recently, earlier in the Champions League campaign, Galatasaray beat Liverpool to win 1-0 thanks to a Victor Osimhen penalty in the first half.

So why does Çimbum – the mysterious moniker of Turkey’s most successful football club – have such a good record against English teams?

According to assistant manager Ismail Garcia Gomez, this is because the Turkish league is the most English club outside of England – and Galatasaray is the most English Turkish club of all.

“I think that sometimes, with the more dynamic transitional games that we have against teams from England, we are used to that,” Garcia Gomez told BBC Sport.

“The Turkish league is not at the same level, but we are more in the Premier League than all the other European leagues, more than in Italy and Spain where the tempo is lower. The English teams, the ones we face, we feel comfortable because they are open.

“I’ve never had experience working in English men’s football, but I have experienced it as a fan. England is for the fans, and football for the fans is the best.”

“But Turkey has nothing to be jealous of. The atmosphere in the stadiums is amazing. I’ve been lucky enough to work all over Europe, and the passion here is at the same level as any country we can name,” he added.