Galatasaray Stumbles in Season Opener as Osimhen Scores Brace

Victor Osimhen walked off the pitch with the match ball in his grasp and frustration written all over his face. Two goals, the first of the new Turkish Super League season and a late rescue act, still weren’t enough to turn Galatasaray’s opener into the statement win their fans expected.

Instead, the champions opened their title defence with a 2-2 draw against newly promoted Corum FK in Istanbul – and they were made to sweat for even that.

Osimhen strikes, Corum hit back

For 53 minutes, the script looked familiar. Galatasaray probing, the visitors hanging on, the crowd waiting for the breakthrough. It came from the man everyone expected.

Osimhen, already the focal point of this side, broke the deadlock shortly after the restart, claiming the honour of scoring the first goal of the 2026/27 Super League campaign. He had already seen teammate Yunus Akgun’s first-half effort chalked off for offside; this time there was no reprieve for Corum.

At that point, it felt like a routine afternoon was finally taking shape. It wasn’t.

Corum FK, on their debut in the top flight, refused to bow. The champions eased off, and the newcomers smelled opportunity. Alexandros Kyziridis struck, Jesus Ramirez followed in quick succession, and suddenly the Türk Telekom crowd was stunned into silence as the promoted side flipped the match on its head.

From control to chaos in a matter of minutes. Corum were not just surviving; they were leading, and fully deserving of it.

The visitors grew in belief with every tackle and every counter-attack. As noted by TV100, they looked capable of walking out of the champions’ home with all three points and a statement win that would have echoed around the league.

Osimhen rescues a point

Just when that shock result seemed inevitable, Osimhen dragged Galatasaray back from the brink. Late on, the Nigerian striker stepped up again, finding the equaliser that spared his side from a disastrous opening-day defeat and denied Corum FK a dream debut victory.

His brace underlined what everyone around the club already knows: Galatasaray’s season will lean heavily on his goals. On a day when the champions looked short of rhythm, his sharpness was the difference between a stumble and a full-blown fall.

It was still not the outcome the home fans came for.

Buruk: “We’re not used to this”

Okan Buruk did not try to dress it up. Speaking after the game, the Galatasaray head coach admitted the performance and result fell short of expectations for a team that has built its recent dominance on ruthless home form.

“We're not 100% ready. No team is 100% ready, and neither are we,” he told GS TV, pointing to the disrupted preparation period and the unusual calendar after the World Cup. The explanation was clear, but so was the demand.

“But of course, we needed to get through this period by winning,” he said.

The tone hardened as he reflected on the dropped points.

“We're disappointed, of course we are. We're not used to this kind of thing. We're used to winning, especially at home. We've always played that dominant game. Maybe there have been matches where we played worse and still won. We will do better, we will do it in time.”

Buruk’s words captured the mood: not panic, but irritation. Galatasaray have set their own bar high. A home draw against a promoted side, no matter how spirited, does not meet it.

Corum announce themselves

For Corum FK, this was more than a point. It was a statement that they belong at this level.

They went behind away to the champions and responded with courage and quality. Kyziridis and Ramirez seized their moments, and for a spell they had Galatasaray rocking, the holders chasing shadows and the crowd anxious.

They could not quite hold on under late pressure, but they leave Istanbul with encouragement and credibility. On another day, without Osimhen in this kind of form, they might have celebrated one of the great opening-weekend shocks.

Road test awaits the champions

Galatasaray now move on to their first away fixture of the season, a trip to face Erzurumspor, another club making their Super League debut. It is an immediate chance to reset, to turn an opening-day stumble into a sharp lesson rather than an early pattern.

Osimhen has already opened his account and claimed the season’s first goal. The question now is whether the rest of the champions can catch up to his level before this title defence becomes more complicated than anyone at the club planned.