Our Men’s Handball Team played host to İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi in the most crucial contest of the week but the visitors escaped with a 31-26 victory that gave them a significant advance in the championship race.

Izmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi got off to a fast start and playing aggressive defense, jumped out to an early lead on goals by Cengiz and Murat. Unable to get anything going offensively, Beşiktaş trailed 4-2 entering the 9th minute. As the game progressed, the visitors added two more and extended the margin to 4 goals. Meanwhile, Beşiktaş’s goalkeeper Yılmaz pulled off a number of brilliant saves in the net and kept his club in the game. The Black and White shook off their sluggish start midway through the first half and cut the deficit to 2 with goals from Oğuzhan and Utku. And then a 24th-minute goal by Bülent leveled the score. But after Saffet’s late 2-minute penalty, Beşiktaş lacked scoring punch up front and trailed 15-14 at the half.
The early part of the second half saw the teams trade goals with neither side gaining the upper hand but the visiting İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi eventually took control of the game and built a 23-20 cushion at the 44th-minute mark. Then Beşiktaş began to commit a series of costly turnovers and were unable to stage an effective comeback. The visitors continued to dominate the game in the closing minutes, as they tightened up on defense and prevented the Black and White from getting an open look at the net. Beşiktaş’s last-ditch attempt to close the gap turned out to be too little and too late, as the visitors coasted to a 5-point, 31-26 victory.