Galatasaray hosted Gençlerbirliği in the Ziraat Türkiye Kupası quarterfinal at 20.30, with the first whistle sending the tie into a match that would decide who reached the semifinals. Galatasaray entered with Victor Osimhen on the bench and Yaser Asprilla unavailable because treatment was still continuing.
The home side’s starting eleven was Günay, Icardi, Sane, Eren, Ahmed, Kaan, Nhaga, Lang, Singo, Boey and Lemina. Gençlerbirliği lined up with Goutas, Erhan, Thalisson, Fıratcan, Abdurrahim, Diabate, Samed, Oğulcan, Cihan, Metehan and Traore, while Abdullah Şahindere, Moussa Kyabou, Berk Deniz Çukurcu and Pedro Pereira were missing through injury.
The quarterfinal carried weight because Galatasaray had finished Group A with 12 points and came in as the top team from that section. The two clubs had met 104 times before this one, with Galatasaray winning 58, Gençlerbirliği taking 24 and 22 ending level. Galatasaray had scored 202 goals across those meetings, while Gençlerbirliği had 122, and the Istanbul side had won the previous five games between them.
That history gave the tie a familiar edge, but the bench and the injury list made the night feel less settled than the record books suggested. Galatasaray had the deeper recent run of results, yet Osimhen was not in the starting team, and Gençlerbirliği arrived with several absences of its own, leaving both sides to adjust before the semifinal place was decided on the field.
For Galatasaray, the task was simple and unforgiving: use home ground, hold off a side it had beaten repeatedly, and turn a strong group-stage finish into a place in the last four. For Gençlerbirliği, the chance was narrower but clear — break a five-match losing streak in the matchup and leave with a semifinal berth that history did not promise.
