Göztepe and Galatasaray met in the 37th week of the Super League.

The away team won the match played at Gürsek Aksel Stadium 2-0. Galatasaray’s goals were scored by Kaan Ayhan in the 70th minute and Alvaro Morata in the 90+1st minute.

After the match, Galatasaray Coach Okan Buruk made a statement.

“AN IMPORTANT AND BEAUTIFUL WIN”

Buruk began his speech as follows:

We are happy, 92 points. We have exceeded the 90 point threshold again. If we win the last match, we will be one point below last year. Another high score. This makes me happy. People think it doesn’t matter whether we win or not today, but for me, winning is very important. It was difficult for the players, it was hot. We saw that players who had not played for a long time also had difficulty during the game. It was not a match where we would judge our players because they have not played for a long time. We went through an intense tempo. We saw that they were well-intentioned and always in the game. It is difficult to play against Göztepe. When we solved it, we went to the opponent’s goal very easily, but sometimes we lost the ball under pressure, there were places where we could not do well. Kaan scored a magnificent goal. There were also positions until we got there. We finished the game with the second goal. An important and beautiful victory.

“DRIES IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US”

Speaking about Dries Mertens, Buruk made the following statement:

Dries is very important to us. He is very valuable along with his family. He has provided important services to Galatasaray. Despite his age, his professionalism has helped us a lot. It will be very difficult to leave him. We are all emotional in this sense. Next week will also be important for him. We plan to play him in that match as well. Such separations are sometimes very difficult.

“HE SERVED VERY IMPORTANTLY”

Regarding Fernando Muslera, Buruk said:

Muslera also had such an idea last season, but we convinced him. He is a very valuable and important name. He provided very important service. It is not easy to replace him.

“GÜNAY’S PERFORMANCE WILL ALSO BE APPRECIATED”

Praising Günay Güvenç, Buruk said:

Günay’s performances are also commendable. He made two very important saves today. He is one of the secret captains on the field, in the dugout, in the dressing room, wherever he is. For me, it is very important to have such players. That is why we are comfortable. They have a very big share in success. Separations are difficult. We will have a very hard time.

“GALATASARAY TEAM IS WINNING CHAMPIONSHIPS”

Buruk continued his words as follows:

The Galatasaray team wins championships. There are changes. The important thing is to bring the right names here. Elections and separations will be difficult for us, but the love for Galatasaray will not end for any of them. We see this in foreign players as well. I think this is one of the most beautiful things. It will be an unending love.

“WE WILL CELEBRATE OUR CHAMPIONSHIP”

Speaking about the celebrations, Buruk said:

We asked for support during the week regarding this. In addition, it is the 3rd championship and we deserved it. Such a big organization is very important. Participation there is important, we will celebrate the championship together. We will celebrate our 3rd championship and 5th star with pleasure.

“WE WILL PREPARE FOR THE NEW SEASON WITH THIS PASSWORD”

Explaining his new goal, Buruk made the following assessment:

We have 25 championships and 19 cups. We will say 20+26 in 2026. We will prepare for the new season with this motto.

“IT WAS A NICE VICTORY”

Okan Buruk, who stated that both teams competed in good faith, spoke as follows:

We became champions. Göztepe also had the aim of winning but their European chances were over. It is difficult to play in hot weather. The second half was a little better for us when the weather got a little colder. I had players who had not played for a long time. We had many players who had not seen 90 minutes. Today we made 10 changes compared to last week’s match. Here too, rather than evaluating the performance of our players, of course, the lack of matches and the hot weather were our desire to win. They all showed this desire to win on the field and it was a good victory for us.

“I’M WAITING FOR EVERYONE THERE”

Expressing that they were happy to win, Buruk spoke as follows:

There were positions that Göztepe entered in the first half. Both teams caught positions. We are happy that we won. We have reached 92 points. If we win next week, we will make it 95. We had broken records before this. Even though we did not break the record this year, Galatasaray added another season to the list of teams that collected the most points. This is also important and valuable for us. There is a very important organization for us in Yenikapı tomorrow. I expect everyone there. We will celebrate the championship we won 3 years in a row with a much larger crowd. I expect everyone there.

“THIS YEAR WAS DIFFICULT AND SPECIAL”

Describing this season as ‘difficult and special’, Buruk made the following statement:

If you are the technical director of Galatasaray, you always have to win. You always have to prepare your team to win and you have to work non-stop. The pressure and responsibility on you is very big. First of all, I have a very big responsibility to Galatasaray fans. Here, from the beginning of the season until now, I have always tried to protect Galatasaray’s rights. On the field, off the field, it was a very difficult and special year for us. So, it is necessary to underline this. I think this year was one of the most difficult and special years. So, sometimes the football you play only on the field is not enough. This year was a little more difficult in this sense and we, together with our players, always focused on winning.

“THE EUROPEAN LEAGUE IS A WOUND WITHIN US”

Evaluating this season’s Europa League adventure, Buruk made the following statements:

Of course, our only regret is that we could have done better in Europe. This is a significant wound for us. But we will be in the Champions League next year. Hopefully, we will try to represent Türkiye correctly in the Champions League with a suitable squad. We will try to make Galatasaray’s name heard in Europe again. We played very important matches in our previous Champions League adventure. I think we played very important matches again with teams like Manchester United and Bayern Munich. We played very important games. Our aim next year is to show this playing power there again. In other words, this year, the Europa League was an experience for us for the first time in this sense. In fact, we started the adventure very well and ended it badly. In other words, we started the adventure in very good form, played very good games, when we saw the superiority and game superiority we established against the team that won the Tottenham match and won the Europa League, but we also lost points against teams that we thought we would never lose points and then we could not make it to the top 8 and played in the elimination round and were eliminated there too. In this sense, there was actually a big chance for us this year to go all the way to the finals. Of course, we are learning lessons from here. In other words, we are learning lessons about transfers. Preparing players for the structure of the players, the size of the squad. In other words, one of the most difficult things for me is that you always have to win in the Turkish League. In other words, you can’t rotate too many matches here. Because you have to not lose points. This makes it a little bit harder for us, it makes our job harder. It hinders our success in Europe a little bit more. Because the points have increased a lot in recent years. We have to not lose any points.

“STAFF BREAKDOWN WILL BE IMPORTANT”

Speaking about their goal of directly participating in the Champions League next season, Okan Buruk said:

The Champions League will be much different. Of course, we aim for the top 8, but we also aim to enter the top 24 and advance to the next round. There will be two targets here. But besides that, as I said, a suitable squad, squad width, squad rotation will be much more important. We will play tougher matches. We were saying we want to play in the finals in the Europa League, but the Champions League is not such an easy organization in this sense. It is not an organization where you can say that you will directly play in the finals. There are very important teams. However, you never know what anyone will do. Of course, our goal here will be to continue in the best place and to the best place we can go.