Fenerbahce came from behind to beat Slavia Prague 2-1 in the UEFA Europa League – just the second time the hosts had lost in seven meetings with Turkish opposition.
It took just seven minutes for the hosts to open the scoring as Tomas Chory applied a clinical first-time finish to Lukas Provod’s low cross for his 10th goal across all competitions this season.
Dominik Livakovic was then given more routine work to deny Jan Boril and David Doudera as the hosts ruthlessly continued to come forward.
Fenerbahce provided a threat of their own, though, with a last-ditch intervention from Tomas Holes being required to deny Edin Dzeko a clear sight of goal.
Slavia soon got back to causing problems with crosses, although Doudera and Chory were both unable to capitalise on the quality of the balls being put in for them on two occasions each.
That wastefulness was punished in the 35th minute, as a swift Fenerbahce move culminated in Dzeko drifting inside Boril and smashing his strike out of Antonin Kinsky’s reach.
Having delivered some of those earlier crosses, Provod thought he had restored his side’s lead with a volley that crept inside the post, only for the goal to be ruled out because Chory was in an offside position.
There were some heated exchanges before the break and things remained competitive with the hosts picking up two yellow cards within 10 minutes of the restart.
It also stayed even with Doudera getting a big opportunity but ultimately being unable to make the most of it.
Jose Mourinho then turned to Irfan Kahveci and Youssef En-Nesyri in the 78th minute as he searched for a winner, and just seven minutes after being introduced, the latter was teed up by Dusan Tadic before showing the quality to beat Kinsky despite the goalkeeper getting a touch on his shot.
Jindrich Trpisovsky quickly responded with a double change of his own but his side were unable to get back on level terms, enduring a third consecutive Europa League defeat to be left outside of the play-off places.
In contrast, Fenerbahce ended their three-game winless run in European competition to jump up to 15th and now sit just two points outside of the automatic qualification spots.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ismail Yuksek (Fenerbahce)
See all the match facts here.
Catch up on all the Europa League results here.
