NOS Football•
It is precisely Oguzhan Özyakup who delivered the three points to Fortuna Sittard on a visit to FC Emmen (0-1). The Turkish international scored the winning goal fifteen minutes before the end, on an evening when attention was drawn to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
“We did it, we played”, stammered the match winner afterwards.
Fortuna already played with Giro555 on his shirt, a call to donate money to relatives of the disaster. Özyakup immediately ran to the side after his goal to show a T-shirt with the text ‘Pray for Turkey’.
FC Emmen, which is in danger of relegation, contributed to the Turkish tribute with a number of serious misses. The biggest was from Jeremy Antonisse, who was put in front of the empty goal by Mark Diemers. But Antonisse misjudged the breech and shot hopelessly over.
Emmen had more opportunities to take the lead. An attempt from distance by Diemers just went over and with Ahmed El Messaoudi (header) another ex-Fortunees was also almost accurate.
Yilmaz menacing
The Limburgers slowly took over control in the course of the first half. Before the break, Burak Yilmaz appeared dangerously at the far post (next to), after the break he forced Mickey van der Hart to make a save, after which the Emmen goalkeeper also parried Kristijan Bistrovic’s rebound.
Vedette Yilmaz also started the attack from which the only goal fell, although with a bit of luck the ball eventually reached Özyakup.
“Football is not the most important thing in life at all,” he realized, in a week in which he followed the news closely. “Family of my best friends are there, my own friends speak a lot. Then it is difficult to prepare mentally.”
Watch the reactions of Oguzhan Özyakup and Dogan Erdogan below:
For the third Turk on the field, Dogan Erdogan, the evening was completely emotional. The midfielder was active for Gaziantepspor until six months ago, from a city that has now turned into a disaster area.
“We all feel the pain of the earthquake,” Erdogan said. “It’s a good win. But our thoughts are now with the Turks and the Syrians.”
