A slate of matches in the Turkish Cup’s 3rd Round are to be played on the 11th through the 13th of November. The 3rd Round is unusual for a European national Cup competition in that it is in a league format. The 20 clubs still in the competition have been split up into 4 groups. The top four 07/08 Super Lig finishers are seeded, and placed in seperate groups. Those clubs are: Galatasary (reigning champions), 2nd place finishers Fenerbahce, 3rd place finishers Besiktas, and 4th place finishers Sivasspor.
Teams play all four other teams in their group, with the top two advancing to the 4th Round, which is a standard knockout competition.
In this season’s 3rd Round, there are 6 clubs from the lower leagues, including 2 clubs that are in the 3rd Level (which is called the TFF Second League): Tokatspor and Alanyaspor.
Four clubs are from the the 2nd Level, which is known as the TFF First League, but is officially called the Bank Asya 1. Lig. Altay SK of Izmir, has won the Cup twice, the last time in 1980.
Here is Wikipedia’s page on the Turkiye Kupasi, which includes a list of all the clubs that have won the Turkish Cup {Click here}.
Cup holders are the central Anatolian club Kayserispor. One interesting sub-plot in the Turkish Cup is the perennial failure of giants Fenerbahce to win the Cup, for 25 years running. In 2005, Fenerbahce was demolished by Galataaray 5-1. Fenerbahce then lost the next year to Besiktas, 3-2 in AET. A Galatasaray supporter sent me this image of his fellow fans mocking Fenerbahce’s cup history, the inference being that they haven’t won the Cup since the Stone Age {see this}.
Thanks to the pclion fc site {Click here}, for information and images.
Thanks to the Soccerway site for fixtures and results {Click here}.