Rizespor led 2-0 at half-time at home in the Black Sea derby on Monday, with Italian striker Gennaro Borrelli scoring twice — his first goals for the club — either side of the half-hour. What followed was one of the comebacks of the Turkish Super Lig season.
Trabzonspor needed just nine second-half minutes to flip the game. Melih Kabasakal tapped in from an Ernest Muci pass in the 49th minute, Aral Şimşir chipped goalkeeper Yahia Fofana two minutes later, and Franculino bundled in a rebound in the 58th to make it 3-2. Rizespor hit back through Qazim Laci, whose strike from nearly 30 metres clipped the post and flew into the top corner. With four minutes left, Muci — who assisted all three of the earlier goals — sent Franculino through again, and the striker drove into the box and smashed a fourth into the top corner. Final score: 4-3, Trabzonspor's sixth straight win in all competitions under coach Thomas Reis, lifting them to second place on 19 points after nine matches. Rizespor sit 13th with 10.
Monday's other ninth-round fixture was calmer. Beşiktaş beat Istanbul Başakşehir 2-0 at home, with Dusan Vlahovic hitting the crossbar in the first half before substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu rounded the keeper to open the scoring in the 76th minute and Junior Olaitan sealed it in the 89th from a Leandro Trossard cross. Beşiktaş moved fourth on 18 points; Başakşehir stay 12th on 11.
So why does a football scoreline matter to travellers? Because matchday in Trabzon is an experience in itself. The Black Sea city is one of Turkish football's great strongholds, and its fans make the Papara Park stadium one of the loudest grounds in the country. A derby night there — wet, loud, packed with locals — is a genuinely memorable addition to a trip along Turkey's northeast coast, an underrated corner of the country of tea plantations, cliffside villages and the summits of the Kaçkar Mountains. Rizespor's home ground sits in the same tea-growing region, barely an hour's drive east, so the two clubs make a natural double header for anyone timing a visit to the fixture list.
For football-mad travellers, the takeaway is simple: this is a league in competitive, high-scoring form right now, and Istanbul offers an easy entry point with three big clubs of its own — Beşiktaş among them — all playing in the city. If your dates line up with a Trabzonspor home game, grab a ticket; the atmosphere rarely disappoints, and the city's hearty Black Sea cooking (think anchovy dishes and plenty of butter) makes a fine post-match reward.
