Manisa took on Van BB in the second round of the 1. lig regular season on Saturday evening, and the hosts ran out 4-1 winners at home.
The game opened with a flurry — Sylla found the net in the first minute, and Anziani doubled the lead by twenty. Lindseth added a third before half-time, and Anziani struck again in the fifty-first to put the result beyond doubt. By then Van were chasing shadows and the hosts were working the channels with ease. And here's the thing — Van had already lost their composure.
Van had a chance to pull one back when Kökçü thought he'd scored twice in quick succession, but both went to review and were cancelled. The incident went to review both times, and the referee had no choice but to disallow them. Kökçü would take a yellow card and, less than twenty minutes later, a red card for his frustration.
The substitutions came thick and fast in the second half — Bingol and Khan for Van at the break, Caglayan in the sixty-eighth, and three changes for the hosts at seventy. Anziani was withdrawn at the hour mark, having done his job.
The statistics told a story Manisa had already written on the pitch — 54 per cent possession, seven shots on target against three, and 79 attacks compared to 83 for Van. The visitors worked harder but couldn't find the back of the net, and their 27 per cent shot accuracy left them staring at the drop. It wasn't a display of quality so much as desperation.
Manisa moved to tenth place with eight points from six games, while Van remained fifteenth on five points. The gap between them was widening, and Van were beginning to look like they had hit a wall.