In the second leg of the Uefa Conference League playoff round, Istanbul Basaksehir attained a 2-0 victory over St Patrick’s Athletic, with goals netted by Ömer Ali Şahiner and Olivier Kemen in the 64th and 82nd minutes respectively. Despite St Patrick’s Athletic’s ambitious journey towards the playoffs, their aspirations of reaching the Uefa Conference League group stages was shattered.
The daunting reality further intensified when, with merely nine minutes left on the clock and trailing by a single goal, Aaron Bolger received a red card. The dismissal turned fatal for St Pat’s subsequent chances of a comeback, as Kemen – the player fouled by Bolger – shook off the injury to net an impressive second goal within a minute and a half.
Despite the nail-biting suspense that lingered until the match’s mid-point, Basaksehir continuously pressed on, confident that their superiority would gradually overwhelm the valiant efforts of the underdog Irish team. Disappointment was mixed with some sense of assurance as St Pat’s retreated for the half-time break, with the scoreboard still reflecting a stalemate.
St Patrick’s Athletic’s dreams of advancing to the Conference League group stages were dashed due to their loss against Istanbul Basaksehir. Concurrent happenings in the football world included Northern Ireland’s Jonny Evans retiring from international football, Liverpool signing Federico Chiesa from Juventus and Irish winger Chiedozie Ogbene returning to Premier League with Ipswich Town.
Stephen Kenny seemed to thrive in his tussle against Atan. During the first leg, held the previous Thursday in Tallaght, St Pat’s had adopted an approach of aggressively pressuring the formidable Turkish attackers. In a noticeable contrast during this match, they resorted to a passive approach, causing Basaksehir’s remarkable centre-back Jerome Opoku to launch several forward runs from the depth of his line – albeit with his impressive play not reflected in his goal-shooting.
Kenny consciously refrained from deploying a low block strategy. Instead, Mason Melia created hassle for defenders while Kian Leavy offered support to the young attacker. Nevertheless, Kenny revised his tactics from the previous outing, challenging Dimitrios Pelkas to dismantle his team as the Greek international had previously done against the Republic of Ireland in June 2023.
The ex-manager of Ireland was keen to avoid another experience similar to the one in Athens. His squad, almost unanimously, carried out their roles effectively and were almost rewarded with a prompt goal. This came when Leavy stealthily took the ball from Onur Ergun and passed it to Zachary Elbouzedi, who quickly dispatched a low pass to an unattended Melia. As his shot lightly made its way into Muhammad Senegezer’s possession, the teenager would have undoubtedly wished for a second attempt. This was the peak of St Pat’s attempts against the title holder of the 2020 Turkish competition.
One of the reasons why Krzysztof Piatek is not a well-known name is that within the initial 15 minutes, the robust number nine from Poland went without scoring after a powerful shot that went wide of Joseph Anag’s post and then a headed effort that went over the St Pat’s crossbar. This came following a decent delivery by Pelkas.
Given St Pat’s tight structure, expertly overseen by Joe Redmond and Tom Grivosti, Basaksehir had to exploit them during transition. An error from Leavy made way for such an opportunity as Turuc and Oliver Kemen teamed up to set up Palas, who shot wide.
St Pat’s was able to generate two minor opportunities before the interval. It was a frequent sighting throughout this two-legged contest: Chris Forrester’s neat ball down to the right pushed Elbouzedi to launch an early cross, but Leavy wasn’t able to get it right. Afterward, a possession turnover by Hamza Gureler led Leavy charging into the Turkish box, where he exhibited clear frustration after a tragic slip.
The gentleman from Louth had a shout for penalty denied as referee Balazs Berke spotted him going down even before Ergun’s minimal touch. Same was the case at the other end with VAR deciding that Ozcan’s shot hitting Breslin’s hand did not call for a penalty.
With a sudden resilient phase from the hosts, Axel Sjoberg, St Pat’s remarkable right-back, made a goal-line save denying Berkay Ozcan and Piatek’s furious shot was inadvertently blocked by Kemen.
The meagre number of St Pat’s fans present in the crowd of 6,160 spectators could just about be heard exhaling in relief.
Sjoberg isn’t likely to remain as a League of Ireland defender for much longer. He proved instrumental in keeping St Pat’s in the game with more excellent defending against Davidson.
Sporting green and gold attire, after a vigorous fight, the Irish team began to feel exhaustion creeping in. This fatigue was quickly exploited by Ali Sahiner, who skillfully maneuvered past Grivosti to almost effortlessly score the first goal, sinking it into Anang’s goal.
St Pat’s were left with a quarter of an hour to secure their redemption.
Elbouzedi was able to secure a corner after his attempt at goal was blocked by Opoku. However, amidst Kemen’s swift counter-attack, Bolger lashed out unnecessarily at the Cameroonian player. Initially only present on the field for about 180 seconds, he was almost immediately shown a red card by referee Berke. Shortly afterward, Kemen out-jumped Breslin to score the second goal, using a powerful header.
Looking towards the future, St. Pat’s must prepare for their encounter with Drogheda United at Richmond Park, scheduled for this coming Sunday evening.
The teams were as follows:
For Istanbul Basaksehir FK, the players were Sengezer; Duarte (Kemen on in the 7th minute), Gureler, Opoku, Ali Sahiner (replaced by Ozedmir in the 76th minute); Ozcan, Ergun, Pelkas (taken off for Lima in the 77th minute); Turuc, Piatek (subbed out for Keny 77), and Davidson (replaced by Figueiredo in the 68th minute).
For St Patrick’s Athletic, the team consisted of Anang; Sjoberg, Redmond, Grivosti, Breslin; Forester (replaced by Bolger in the 77th minute), Lennon; Mulraney (replaced by Kavanagh in the 77th minute), Leavy, Elbouzedi (subbed out for Kazeem in the 88th minute); Melia (Keena on in the 68th minute).
The referee was Balazs Berke from Hungary.