Bursaspor saw off Istanbulspor 4-0 at Timas Arena in the fifth round of the Turkish First League, a result that tightens their grip on the upper half of the table. The hosts moved into fifth place on nine points after four matches, while the visitors remain rooted at the bottom with just two points from four games.
The match settled down after a flurry of bookings in the opening quarter, with yellow cards for Phellipe Cardoso Araújo, Barış Kanbak, Zeki Yavru, Abdullah Dijlan Aydin and Halil Akbunar all coming before the break. Kelechi Iheanacho thought he had opened the scoring on twenty-six minutes, but the goal was cancelled by VAR. He made no mistake fifty minutes later, nodding home to give Bursaspor the lead just before half-time.
Halil Akbunar restored the two-goal cushion in the fifty-eighth minute, and then Duran Şahin turned the screw with an own goal in the sixty-seventh. Iheanacho completed his brace on seventy-seven minutes, and Istanbulspor's defence simply had no answer to the movement in the final third. The visitors did not travel to make up the numbers, and that showed in their inability to test the Bursaspor keeper.
The statistics tell the story of a one-sided afternoon. Bursaspor held sixty-seven percent of possession and registered six shots on target compared to Istanbulspor's single effort on goal. The hosts launched one hundred and eleven attacks while the visitors managed sixty-four, and the difference in shots inside the penalty area was stark: eleven to none.
Substitutions began to come into play after the hour mark, with Amine Boutrah and Ilian Iliev both introduced for Bursaspor, while B. Gök and Juergen Elitim came on for Istanbulspor. The visitors made more changes overall, bringing on Eyüp Akcan, U. İslamoğlu and others as the game slipped away from them.
The win extends Bursaspor's unbeaten run and keeps them within touching distance of the play-off places. Istanbulspor's struggles continue — they have lost twice and drawn twice, and the gap to safety is growing by the week.
