Mohamed Salah scored a hat-trick and set up another goal as Trabzonspor thrashed defending champions Galatasaray 4-0 at home on Saturday, handing the Istanbul side their first defeat of the Turkish Super Lig season.
Salah, 34, opened the scoring in the fourth minute, running through from midfield and finishing calmly, before he turned provider to set up Noah Saviolo, who struck from inside the penalty area in the 39th minute.
Salah added a third in the 44th minute with a clinical finish from a Franculino Dju assist, sending the team he joined last month into the break three goals up.
He completed his hat-trick in the 80th minute, running more than half the length of the pitch unchallenged to score with a trademark side-foot finish.
Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk was sent to the stands in the 71st minute while Lesley Ugochukwu was shown a red card in the 87th.
German coach Thomas Reis took charge of Trabzonspor this week following the departure of Fatih Tekke earlier this month.
Reis said: “First of all, we know Salah’s quality and what he is capable of. We know how dangerous he can be when he has the ball, but today the whole team fought incredibly hard. They fought incredibly hard to create those spaces for him.
“I’m very happy to be Salah’s coach. But at the same time, our defenders, all our midfielders, everyone did a very good job. Today they were very useful to him and helped him.”
Trabzonspor are fifth in the table with 10 points from six games, three points behind leaders Galatasaray.
They crashed out of the Europa League playoffs following a heavy defeat to Hungarian side Ferencvaros. Salah joined the Turkish club in the summer after nine years at Liverpool. He now has seven goals in six Turkish league games.
