It was business as usual for Alex de Souza with another bright performance Sunday, but it was simply not an ordinary day for Fenerbahçe.

The Yellow Canaries enjoyed huge contributions from their Brazilian star to set the new record for best-ever start to the Turkcell Super League season. The club earned their eighth consecutive victory with a 3-0 win over GençlerbirliÄŸi.

Fenerbahçe broke its own record, a seven-win start in the 1964-1965 campaign.

Alex netted the first of his two goals in the 13th minute, striking the ball home from outside the box. He scored his second in the 71st minute, before defender Diego Lugano wrapped up the scoring in the closing seconds of the game.

The Brazilian attacker has tallied three league goals this season, increasing his total to six in all competitions. In his sixth season, Fenerbahçe captain looks stronger than ever, but he remained humble in a press conference after the game.

“Fenerbahçe is a great team and I am only a part of it,” he said. “There are many quality players in the squad and that’s why the team is powerful.”

Speaking about his team’s performance in the Turkcell Super League, Alex played down the importance of the team’s impeccable eight-game run.

“We will not win all of our games and one day a team will come and beat us,” he said. “But we try hard to make it as late as possible.”

“Of course we want to win every time,” he added. “We played well and got the three points that we were supposed to take home today.”

Fenerbahçe coach Christoph Daum praised Alex’s performance as well.

“He showed his class with his performance,” said the German coach. “Anyone who loves football should like his goals. When you watch Alex, your heart starts to smile.”

Daum said that a perfect record makes Fenerbahçe a better target for other teams.

“Most teams come to this stadium to become the first team to beat us,” said Daum. “But we turned this around.”

Fenerbahçe fully used the advantage to open the gap between its closest competitor, Galatasaray, who slumped to a humiliating 3-0 defeat at the hands of Ankaragücü, also on Sunday.

Galatasaray, whose six-game winning streak ended with a 1-1 draw against EskiÅŸehirspor last week, had chances to win the game, but ultimately could not stop an Ankaragücü side that finished its counterattack chances. A trio of goals in the last seven minutes won the game for Ankaragücü and gave Frank Rijkaard his first loss as Galatasaray’s coach.

“We started the game well but could not score,” said the Dutchman. “After conceding the first goal we lost control of the game. We have to take lessons from that defeat.”

Ankaragücü coach Hikmet Karaman said that the Galatasaray win meant a lot for his team.

“Beating a previously undefeated team with three goals means a lot to us, hats off to my players,” said Karaman, adding that he assumed Galatasaray would be tired after playing a Europa League game on Thursday.

“Our opponents were the dominant side in the first half but it was part of our plan to try and control the game in the last half hour,” he said.

Galatasaray fell five points behind leader Fenerbahçe in the Turkcell Super League standings