Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk has questioned the officiating following his side’s 3-1 Champions League loss to Sporting CP in Lisbon, insisting key refereeing decisions influenced the outcome.
Galatasaray made a bright start and took an early lead, but Sporting turned the game around, with Luis Suárez converting a penalty to make it 2-1 before Rodrigo Zalazar completed the comeback.
Buruk said his team had controlled the first half and created the better opportunities.
“We actually played a very comfortable first half,” Buruk said. “Our opponents couldn’t get anywhere near our goal. The chances we created, our possession, the way we pinned them back in their own half… Everything was going very well.”
However, Sporting levelled with one of their few attacks before the hosts were awarded a second-half penalty following a VAR review.
“They only had one chance, one shot at our goal, and that ended up being a goal,” Buruk said.
Suárez converted the spot-kick, prompting a strong reaction from the Galatasaray coach.
“Of course, at this level, to give a penalty like that in the Champions League is simply not acceptable,” he said.
Buruk also took aim at the Norwegian referee, recalling a previous encounter with the official in Istanbul.
“We complain about refereeing in Turkey, don’t we? Well, today we saw the Norwegian referee here as well,” Buruk said. “We had already had an experience with him in Istanbul before.”
He argued that the failure to issue a first-half red card and the decision to award Sporting a penalty were decisive moments in the match.
“Today, the red card he failed to give in the first half and the penalty he awarded when there was no penalty directly affected the score,” he said.
Buruk added that the penalty affected his players psychologically and contributed to their decline after Sporting moved ahead.
“That caused our team to drop significantly, especially after we went 2–1 down,” he said.
