Mohamed Salah Nets First Goals for Trabzonspor in Victory Over Istanbul Basaksehir

Mohamed Salah opened his goalscoring account for Trabzonspor on Sunday, securing a brace in a 2-1 victory against Istanbul ⁠Basaksehir. The Egyptian forward transferred to the Turkish Super Lig club this summer on a two-year deal following his departure from Liverpool after nine successful years. At 34 years old, Salah had gone scoreless in his initial two matches—a 1-1 draw against Kasimpasa and a 1-0 defeat to Ferencvaros—but delivered an impressive performance against ⁠Basaksehir by scoring twice and having two additional goals disallowed.

Making his inaugural league start after coming off the bench in Trabzonspor's opening fixture, Salah opened the scoring in the eighth minute by capitalizing on a mistake by Basaksehir goalkeeper Muhammed Sengezer, who failed to secure the ball. Although Eldor Shomurodov leveled the score for Basaksehir from a penalty in the 19th minute, Salah reclaimed the lead for Trabzonspor three minutes into the second half. He surged down the right flank, combined with Ernest Muci, and finished clinically into the far corner.

Salah later saw a stoppage-time strike disallowed due to a foul in the build-up, and another long-range effort ruled out for offside after he shot into an empty net with the opposing goalkeeper advanced for a corner. The win moves Trabzonspor to fourth place in the Super Lig standings with four points, level with Samsunspor and Galatasaray, and trailing Genclerbirligi by two points. The team will now prepare for Thursday's Europa League play-off second leg away against Ferencvaros, where Fatih Tekke's squad must overcome a 1-0 deficit in Budapest to reach the group stage, or otherwise drop to the Europa Conference League.