Stephen Kenny disappointed as İstanbul Başakşehir end St Pats' European dream
HEARTBREAK:Ömer Ali Şahiner celebrates after scoring his side's first goal against St Patrick's Athletic. Pic: Ozan Emre Oktay/Sportsfile
For 152 minutes over two legs, St Patrick’s Athletic’s dared to believe they’d create history by making the cut for group stage participation in European competition.
Worlds apart in resources, the Irish side belied the €150m chasm of talent value to remain competitive against Istanbul Basaksehir until past the hour mark of the second leg in Turkey.
One pivotal moment, a fortunate ricochet inside the box, broke in the hosts’ favour, allowing Omar Ali Sahiner to squirt the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Joseph Anang.
The captain was part of an experienced Turkish outfit laced with internationals from Europe and beyond, fully expected to emerge from the qualifying rounds for their fifth group phase campaign. As recently as 2021, they were in the Champions League slaying Manchester United.
Runs like that, allied to Government support, equip teams to endure the obstacles presented by opposition from lower-ranked nations like Ireland.
Despite losing former AC Milan defender Léo Duarte after just seven minutes, they could spring from their bench Olivier Kemen.
The Cameroon international ended any comeback hopes by powering his header home with eight minutes left, moments after a wild lunge on him had led to Aaron Bolger incurring a straight red card within four minutes of coming on.
Defeat effectively ends the season in August for the Saints, out of the FAI Cup and languishing in seventh of the table, rank outsiders to salvage entry for a European sequel in 2025.
Similar to last week’s stalemate at their temporary home of Tallaght Stadium, Stephen Kenny’s side will live to regret spurning golden opportunities.
Mason Melia, only turning 17 next month, could be excused for teenage haste when snatching at a fifth-minute opportunity. Muhammed Sengezer was relieved when the striker scuffed his close-range shot straight at him.
He should also have been worked when Kian Leavy, in from the start in place of the injured Romal Palmer, charged behind the defence on 26, only to drag his shot wide of the far post.
It wasn’t until stoppage time that the home stopper was called into serious action but that stop with his legs, when Aidan Keena squared for fellow sub Brandon Kavanagh, came after Basaksehir were comfortably in control.
In between, Axel Sjoberg had to clear off the line before the break, a signal of the orange-shirted side creating alarm. They simply had too much when it came to the crunch, the stage of the tie when risks had to be taken and fatigue can be decisive.
“We didn’t capitalise on two great first-half chances and probably needed to,” lamented Kenny afterwards.
“Midway through the second half the game was still in the balance and they took the lead. The sending-off didn’t help us for the second half.
“At 1-0, as we saw with Brandon’s late chance, we’d be still in the group, so it’s disappointing to go out to an excellent side.”
While Kenny made much of the “five and three-quarter-day” gap between the legs, the scheduling at least offers an extra day to prepare for league resumption. They meet the two relegation candidates from Louth, Drogheda first on Sunday before the refixed game away to Dundalk.
Hurdling two rounds, after receiving a bye in the first as the FAI Cup winner qualifier, grossed the club €1.2m and they missed out on bulging that pot to €3.7m by being eliminated.
“It was unbelievable to score five goals over the two legs against Vaduz and then getting two clean sheets against a Sabah side that had a budget of €12m,” Kenny summarised.
“You can see by the Basaksehir celebrations how relieved they were after realising this was such a tough tie.”
M Sengezer; L Duarte (O Kemen 7), H Gureler, J Opuko, O Ali Sahiner (B Ozdemir 77); B Ozcan, O Ergun, D Pelkas (L Lima 77); D Turuk, Davidson (J Figueiredo 68); K Piatek (P Keny 77).
J Anang; A Sjoberg, J Redmond, T Grivosti, A Breslin; J Lennon, C Forrester (A Bolger 77); Z Elbouzedi, K Leavy, J Mulraney (B Kavanagh 77); M Melia (A Keena 68).
Balázs Berke (HUN).
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