In and out 16 minutes later. What happened to Rafael Leão?

A16 minutes on the lawn. This was the impact of Rafael Leão on the match between Genclerbirligi and Galatasaray (0-1), on the 8th day of the Turkish League, recorded on Saturday night. The Portuguese international began the match at the alternate bank, entered at 61 minutes to the place of Leroy Sané, but would leave less than 20 minutes later, promoting the entrance of Deniz Gul, former FC Porto. 

Rafael Leão's field exit quickly spoke in Turkey, with coach Okan Buruk explaining later that the Portuguese player had injured himself, blaming the state of the lawn. 

“ It was a difficult lawn, with high risk of injury. We had an injury from the lawn. It is a question that needs to be discussed: whether games should be played on these lawns”, the technician of Galatasaray said, in statements to beINSPORTS.

“ The most important thing is inspection. The Turkish Football Federation has to oversee these lawns. That's your job. Perhaps the TFF is not in a position to do so at the moment, but it must monitor. It is a lawn that endangers the health of players, not only Galatasaray, but also Genclerbirligi ", warned Buruk. 

“ We lost a player and have a game in Europe in three days. We should not use the lawn as an excuse for what happened inside the field, but, with regard to the health of the players, we must do it”, lamented. 

At a press conference, Galatasaray's coach kept his critical tone about lawn conditions, but also admitted that the team needs to improve. 

“ We had good times and less good times during the game. In the last 15 minutes, we've managed to get more ball, settle in on the opposing midfield and look for the goal. That's when we scored. Our opponent also played a good game. I want to congratulate both players and the technical team”, he said. 

Declining Gul 

If bad luck knocked at Rafael Leão's door, the same cannot be said of Deniz Gul, who would eventually be decisive in the match against Genclerbirligi, who had the Portuguese Rafael Luís, Tiago Gouveia and Pedro Mendes. 

The ex-FC Porto shot for the goal that would be worth the three points to Galatasaray, but the same ended up attributed to Irfan Egribayat, opposing guardian who diverted the ball to the bottom of the nets. 

With this triumph, Galatasaray consolidated the leadership in the championship, now adding 19 points, two more than the second ranked Amedspor. Third is Fenerbahçe, which has 16 points. 

Focus on Champions

The Turkish champion will now center all the batteries in the Champions League, as he needs to react to both defeats, one against Sporting. Lille is the next opponent and the goal is set: to win in France. 

“ If we can get out of here with many points, we can move on to the next stages. So we have to play well. We're gonna take Lille out of the house and we're gonna have to do a big show. We must return from there with a victory. Of the other four games, three will be played at home. We want to demonstrate our quality and will throughout this calendar and continue the success we achieved last season,” Okan Buruk explained at a press conference.