Galatasaray vs Adana Demirspor Abandoned After Players Walk Off the Pitch

Former Chelsea and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho – now in charge of Turkish side Fenerbahce – couldn’t help but troll Galatasaray for having their Turkish Super Lig contest against Adana Demirspor postponed thanks to a controversial decision.

January addition Alvaro Morata opened the scoring in the 12th minute, sending his spot kick past goalkeeper Deniz Donmezer – but the away contingent – fans, players and coaches alike – were aggrieved by the contentious decision beforehand.

Referee Oguzhan Cakir pointed to the spot in the encounter’s opening stages after creator-in-chief Dries Mertens – stationed behind a two-striker partnership of Morata and Victor Osimhen – was adjudged to have been fouled by Semih Guler.

Replays, however, have proven that Mertens went down far too easily with very minimal contact from the visiting defender. As a means of showing their discontent at Cakir’s choice, Adana Demirspor walked off the pitch around the half-hour mark.

According to T24, a decision on the outcome will be made by the Turkish Football Federation in due course as the RAMS Park-based affair had seen just 30 minutes played. Adana Demirspor head coach Mustafa Alper insisted on his desire to finish Sunday’s match-up, the report suggested.

“The president took the decision, we wanted to stay on the field.” Alper said, while his counterpart, Okan Buruk, even insisted that a penalty was more than likely the incorrect decision made by the official.

The man in the middle abandoned the match and Setubal-born Mourinho, who is widely regarded as one of the best managers in football history thanks to his bloated trophy cabinet across a myriad of stints in Europe, has made a not-so subtle dig in response by taking to Instagram.

Posting a clip of Mertens going to ground, he accompanied the footage with a snap of him on the touchline and a video of him reading, in order to prepare for his side’s upcoming Europa League encounter against Anderlecht, on a plane.

Just last month, the seasoned 62-year-old bemoaned the standard of refereeing in Turkey’s top flight after Galatasaray’s debatable win over Goztepe, who released a post-match statement after succumbing to a 2-1 defeat.

Not being able to restrain himself from making a potentially punishable comment on the matter, the commonly monikered Special One, per talkSPORT, said: “Yesterday, everybody was saying the same thing. Scandal, scandal, scandal.