Gençlik Gücü and Desly Mağusa cruise into the Women’s League Final

THE Puma Women’s Football League playoff semi-finals took place over the weekend, with a local derby taking place on either side of the country.

The first of the two derbies was between the capital Lefkoşa’s giants of women’s football, China Bazaar Gençlik Gücü and Küçük Kaymaklı, on Saturday.

The fixture was a repeat of the previous weekend’s Women’s Cyprus Cup Final that took place in Girne, and was an even more hot-tempered game.

Gençlik Gücü took an early lead once more, this time needing just 102 seconds to get off the mark.

Şeyma Turgut played a sublime ball over the top of Kaymaklı’s defence, finding the run of Ayşe Çetinkaya, who finished with aplomb.

Just as in the Cup Final, Kaymaklı grew into the game as the half went on, with Mariama Dioulde Sow once again their main threat. However, a resolute defensive display from Gençlik Gücü kept them at bay.

Particularly outstanding was Melisa Demirkıran, who put in a number of important tackles and was also given the unenviable task of marking Sow from set-pieces.

This marking situation led to a number of off-the-ball altercations, with Sow lucky that the referee was looking the other way when on one occasion she aimed a punch at Demirkıran.

Gençlik Gücü’s second goal was a source of controversy, with Kaymaklı captain Aslı Ebru losing the ball after colliding with the referee, and Gençlik Gücü springing a rapid counter attack.

Edanur Genç was the goalscorer, shrugging off three defenders before beating Kaymaklı goalkeeper Pembe Beyitoğluları at her near post to double her side’s lead on 37 minutes.

Kaymaklı were apopleptic with rage after the goal went in, with Ebru and manager Önder Seren Mutsuzlar receiving bookings for dissent, and the latter unable to contain her rage on the sidelines.

They surrounded the referee at half time, only returning to their dressing room once the police intervened.

Gençlik Gücü scored their third eight minutes into the second half, with a long kick from goalkeeper Nazar Bayraktar eventually making its way into the path of Başak Ruso, who made no mistake with her finish.

Kaymaklı got a goal back on the hour mark when an optimistic looping cross caught Bayraktar backpedalling.

She was only able to parry the ball into the path of Mariama Dioulde Sow, who finished from close range into an unguarded net.

Başak Ruso then restored Gençlik Gücü’s three-goal advantage with a sublime curling free kick just minutes later.

With a quarter of an hour to play, Aslı Ebru set up a potential grandstand finish when she made the score 4-2 by latching onto a Fikriye Kanlı cross.

Ruso put paid to any hope of that by scoring a second free kick that was even better than the first in stoppage time, taking the score to 5-2 and putting the game beyond Gençlik Gücü’s cross city rivals — but the drama was not done yet.

The referee was once again surrounded by Kaymaklı players and staff at the final whistle, with a melee ensuing.

Somewhere in the chaos, Aslı Ebru was shown a red card and a football was kicked towards the referee, while Pembe Beyitoğluları threw her shin pads across the pitch in disgust and Önder Seren Mutsuzlar attempted to find her way past the police in order to tell the referee exactly what she thought of him.

Kaymaklı’s players stayed outside the referee’s room until the lights in the ground had been turned off, with their season ending in disgrace.

There were celebrations for Gençlik Gücü, who are now potentially just 90 minutes away from a historic league and cup double.

DESLY MAĞUSA V YONPAŞ DUMLUPINAR

Sunday’s game was a much more straightforward affair, with no points of controversy to note in the Gazimağusa derby between Desly Mağusa and Yonpaş Dumlupınar.

Desly Mağusa struggled to break Dumlupınar down in the early stages, but eventually broke the deadlock through Büşra Duran five minutes before half time.

Dumlupınar did not let their heads drop and started positively in the second half, but a goal from Ayşe Mullacuma on the hour mark proved to be the gut punch, and allowed for the floodgates to open.

Nisanur Çalışkan scored Desly Mağusa’s third and put the game beyond all doubt just three minutes later, before Şerif Ogan Karabıyıklı added a fourth with ten minutes to go. Nisanur Çalışkan put the icing on the cake with her second goal just minutes later, to leave the final score 5-0.

The result is a disappointing end to a season for Dumlupınar in which they started brightly but ran out of steam, having lost their last four games in all competitions and fallen out of contention for silverware.

They will, however, take heart from their early-season form and be able to use it as a platform to build on for next season.

Desly Mağusa remain unbeaten in the league, and now have the chance to exact revenge on Gençlik Gücü for knocking them out of the Women’s Cup.

The play-off final is an eachway bet, with both sides having beaten each other once.

It will take place at 7pm today at the Atatürk Stadium in Lefkoşa, with the winner set to make history.