As Turkish national Kenan Yıldız prepares to face the reigning Süper Lig champions in Istanbul, history suggests Tuesday’s Champions League playoff will be anything but ordinary
If there is one thing the history of Galatasaray versus Juventus teaches us, it is to expect the unexpected. Across nearly three decades of Champions League encounters, the fixture has been entangled with international diplomacy, forced into exile 2,000 kilometers from home, and interrupted by a snowstorm so fierce that players had to come back and finish the match the next morning. On Tuesday evening, when the two clubs meet again at RAMS Park for the first leg of the Champions League playoff round, the only real certainty is that something memorable will happen.
1998: When a football match became a diplomatic incident
The saga began in the autumn of 1998. Abdullah Öcalan, the founder of the PKK, had arrived in Italy on Nov. 12, seeking asylum. Türkiye demanded extradition; Rome refused. The crisis sent shockwaves through Turkish society. Anti-Italian sentiment surged across the country – Italian restaurants were boycotted, Italian products shunned. In some Turkish neighborhoods, even gelato shops scrambled to rebrand themselves, swapping "Italian ice cream” for "Turkish ice cream” on their signs.
Into this charged atmosphere stepped the Champions League. Galatasaray and Juventus were drawn in the same group, and their match in Istanbul was originally scheduled for Nov. 25. Juventus, understandably wary, pushed hard for a neutral venue. Gianni Agnelli himself declared that a regular football match could not be played in Türkiye under such circumstances. But UEFA sided with Galatasaray, ruling that the Turkish club should not be punished for a political crisis beyond its control, and postponed the fixture by one week.
When Dec. 2 finally arrived, the scene at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium was extraordinary. More than 20,000 police officers were deployed around the ground. Italian government ministers who had traveled to Istanbul were unable to secure a meeting with their Turkish counterparts. On the pitch, Nicola Amoruso gave Juventus the lead with 20 minutes to play, but Suat Kılıç equalized late to seal a 1-1 draw. It was a football match, yes – but one soaked in geopolitical tension unlike anything European football had seen.
2003: Galatasaray turn Dortmund into Istanbul for a night
Fate had an eerie sense of symmetry. Exactly five years later, in the 2003-04 Champions League group stage, the fixture was disrupted once again – and once again, the scheduled date was Nov. 25. This time, the cause was tragedy: devastating bomb attacks on two Istanbul synagogues, the British consulate, and the HSBC headquarters had killed dozens and shaken the city to its core. UEFA postponed the match and moved it to a neutral venue in Dortmund, Germany.
What happened next became the stuff of Galatasaray legend. The club symbolically renamed the Westfalenstadion "Ali Sami Yen” for the evening – a defiant gesture that carried the soul of their Istanbul fortress into the heart of Germany. And the fans answered the call: roughly 60,000 Turkish supporters flooded the stadium, transforming it into a sea of red and yellow. It was, by all accounts, as loud and as hostile for Juventus as any night at the actual Ali Sami Yen.
Galatasaray won 2-0 under Fatih Terim, handing Juventus – coached by Marcello Lippi, just as in 1998 – their only group-stage defeat of the entire season. The message was clear: you can take Galatasaray out of Istanbul, but you cannot take Istanbul out of Galatasaray.
2013: Sneijder, Drogba, and the snowstorm that stopped a Champions League match
By December 2013, the venue was back in Istanbul, but the elements had other plans. With Galatasaray needing a win to qualify for the knockout rounds and Juventus requiring only a draw, a freak snowstorm engulfed the Türk Telekom Arena on the evening of Dec. 10. The match was abandoned after just 32 minutes, the pitch buried under layers of snow and hail, the ball unable to roll.
The remaining 58 minutes were played the following afternoon in conditions that were only marginally better. Both teams labored through a muddy, slushy pitch. Galatasaray, driven by the fearsome partnership of Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder, adapted better.
With five minutes remaining and the score still deadlocked at 0-0, Drogba cushioned a header into the path of Sneijder, who ran onto it at a tight angle on the right side of the penalty area and struck a low shot through Leonardo Bonucci’s legs and past Gianluigi Buffon. Istanbul erupted – or at least, the 20,000 brave souls who had returned through the snow did. Galatasaray advanced to the round of 16; Juventus, stunned, were dumped into the Europa League. It remains one of the most dramatic Champions League finishes in Turkish football history.
2026: Kenan Yıldız comes home – on the wrong side
Tuesday’s match adds a compelling new chapter to this storied rivalry, and it comes with a distinctly Turkish twist. Kenan Yıldız, the 20-year-old Regensburg-born son of a Turkish father and a German mother, will walk onto the RAMS Park pitch wearing Juventus’s iconic Regensburg-bornshirt – the same jersey once worn by Alessandro Del Piero and Michel Platini. Yıldız, who chose to represent Türkiye internationally, has become the brightest young star in Italian football. He recently extended his contract with Juventus until 2030, and coach Okan Buruk singled him out by name in his pre-match press conference as someone who is "very valuable” and "difficult to predict.”
There will be plenty of Turkish flags in the stands on Tuesday, as there always are. But some of them will be waving for a player in black and white. It is a peculiar emotional cocktail for the RAMS Park faithful: national pride in a young Turkish talent who just happens to be wearing the enemy’s colors. For Yıldız himself, it is the kind of match that defines a career – a European knockout tie in front of a crowd that shares his heritage but not his allegiance.
The Lions are no pushovers
If Juventus are tempted to underestimate their hosts, Galatasaray’s Champions League phase should give them pause. The Lions beat Liverpool 1-0 at RAMS Park, crushed Ajax 3-0 in Amsterdam, and held Atlético Madrid to a 1-1 draw at home. These are not the results of a side content to make up the numbers. Domestically, Okan Buruk’s men sit three points clear at the top of the Süper Lig and have won all four of their matches in February, including a devastating 5-1 rout of Eyüpspor in which Mauro Icardi hit a hat trick and Victor Osimhen laid on two assists.
Kickoff is at 8:45 p.m. local time at RAMS Park, Galatasaray’s thunderous 54,000-seat fortress in the Seyrantepe hills above Istanbul. The return leg is set for Feb. 25 in Turin. If history is any guide – and with this fixture, it always is – the only sensible advice is to expect absolutely anything.