St Pat’s punch above their weight in battle with Besiktas

St Patrick’s Athletic failed to preform a miracle against Besiktas in Istanbul on Thursday evening though they certainly gave an excellent account of themselves, going down swinging in a 3-2 defeat.

It would be The Saints who would initially go ahead after a first minute penalty was converted by Simon Power.

Pats did well to soak up the waves of Turkish pressure that ascended on their goal afterwards with Joseph Anang quickly mopping up any dangerous crosses that found their way into the box.

Pats would shockingly double their lead in the 34th minute thanks to a Ryan McLoughlin goal bringing the score to 2-0 and now only a goal separating the two teams in the tie with a 4-3 aggregate score.

The possibility of a short lived comeback was soon swept away though. 10 minutes later Besiktas would score just before halftime and soon after the second half began former Premier League star Tammy Abraham would score the second for the Turkish side.

Now 6-3 on aggregate Besiktas would score another in the 80th minute through Joao Mario to truly put the tie to bed.

Still a 3-2 loss in Turkey is an admirable result for St Pats against a team full of internationals with two players once valued at €40m euro.

Speaking after the game manager and Tallaght native Stephen Kenny spoke on the performance.

““We’re disappointed to lose. We felt we could have won the game at 2-0 up but I’m very proud of the effort they gave.

“Considering it was our fifth game in 14 days, and we had 120 minutes in the previous round, our players have a lot of guts.”

“We had to make changes in the team here, some players haven’t been playing but I was delighted with the first half, the players didn’t give up any chances, really, and scored two goals of our own, we needed to hang on to 2-0 at half-time, to concede the goal was a setback.”

Besiktas boss and former Manchester United player and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spoke on the Inchicore side after the game.

“This result shows how good last week’s game was, that we go away and lead 4-0 after half an hour but St Pat’s is a team that can make it difficult for you”

“They showed last week in the second half a real defensive solidity and here in the second leg they were the same.

‘They defended really deep, wing backs putting in crosses, they get one goal from a penalty and another from a free kick which then makes it very difficult.”

The result spells the end of Pats European campaign but they will be pleased with their performances which seemed to have jolted them out of the rut they had found themselves in prior in the domestic league.

Financially they will also have benefitted, with each team earning €175,000 per qualifying round along with an elimination bonus St Pats will have earned an hugely important €1,075,000.

A huge sum of money in a league where the champion receives a little over €100,000.