Uefa Conference League playoff round, 2nd leg: Istanbul Basaksehir 2 St Patrick’s Athletic 0 (Ali Sahiner 64, Kemen 82) [Istanbul Basaksehir win 2-0 on agg]
Istanbul Basaksehir goals from Ömer Ali Şahiner and Olivier Kemen brought sobering reality to St Patrick’s Athletic after the Inchicore club’s dizzy run towards the play-offs, to reach the Uefa Conference League group stages, fell short.
Aaron Bolger’s needless red card with nine minutes remaining and St Pat’s only 1-0 down killed off the tie as the man he hacked, Kemen, recovered to score a fabulous second within 90 seconds.
“We’re gutted,” said Stephen Kenny, the St Pat’s manager. “Tonight we pushed a terrific team. You can see by their celebrations, the relief of getting over the line against us because they know over 180 minutes they have been in a real tough tie.”
The longer the contest stayed scoreless, the more nervous the Turkish club owners and fans looked in the stand. But Cagdas Atan’s team kept pouring forward, trusting that their quality would break the brave resistance of a lowly-ranked Irish club.
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St Pat’s made it to half-time with some regrets but mainly relief that the scoreboard read 0-0.
Kenny was clearly enjoying his chess match with Atan. In the first leg, last Thursday in Tallaght, St Pat’s pressed high and went tight on the dangerous Turkish attackers.
Besides Anto Breslin climbing into Deniz Türüç's socks here, they sat off. This forced Basaksehir’s rangy centre-back Jerome Opoku to make several runs from deep. His shooting did not match the rest of his regal play.
Nor did St Pat’s adopt a low block. Mason Melia harried defenders and Kian Leavy sprinted up to support the teenage striker, but Kenny reversed his tactics from last week, daring Dimitrios Pelkas to pick open his team like the Greek international did against the Republic of Ireland in June 2023.
The former Ireland manager was determined to avoid another night like Athens. Almost to a man, his players executed their jobs and they were nearly rewarded with an early goal. It came from Leavy pickpocketing Onur Ergun and feeding Zachary Elbouzedi who flashed a low pass to the unmarked Melia. The 16-year-old must crave a mulligan as his shot trickled into the arms of Muhammad Senegezer.
That was the height of St Pat’s threat to open up the 2020 Turkish champions.
There is a reason why Krzysztof Piatek is not a household name. Inside the opening 15 minutes, the powerful Polish number nine flashed a shot beyond Joseph Anang’s far post before he headed over the St Pat’s crossbar after a decent cross by Pelkas.
Such was St Pat’s compact set-up, confidentially marshalled by Joe Redmond and Tom Grivosti, that Basaksehir needed to catch them in transition. An error by Leavy presented such a moment with Turuc and Oliver Kemen combining to tee up Pelkas, who blazed wide.
St Pat’s did create two half-chances before the break. It was a familiar sight in this two-legged affair; Chris Forrester’s slick ball down the right prompted Elbouzedi to spring an early cross but Leavy could not find the target. Next, Hamza Gureler cough up possession only for Leavy to gallop into the Turkish box where he slammed the grass in frustration following a poor miscue.
The Louth man also had a penalty shout but referee Balazs Berke spotted him falling to ground before Ergun made soft contact. The same happened down the other end with VAR ruling that Ozcan’s shot hitting Breslin’s hand did not warrant a spot kick.
The home side responded with a purple patch. Axel Sjoberg, St Pat’s outstanding right-back, denied Berkay Ozcan with a goalline clearance before Piatek got in the way of Kemen’s lethal shot.
The hundred St Pat’s fans among the 6,160 attendance could almost be heard sighing in relief.
Sjoberg won’t be a League of Ireland defender much longer. He kept St Pat’s afloat with more superb defending to deny Davidson.
But the Irish players, in an green strip and gold numbers, began to tire and Ali Sahiner took advantage, putting Grivosti on his back side to almost walk the opening goal into Anang’s net.
St Pat’s had 25 minutes to turn the tide.
Elbouzedi earned a corner, when Opoku blocked his speculative effort, but as Kemen raced clear on a counter-attack, Bolger swung an aggressive leg at the Cameroon international. The midfielder was on the pitch just three minutes when Berke instantly pulled out a red card. Seconds later, Kemen rose above Breslin to make it 2-0 with a bullet header.
Cue reality and the visit of Drogheda United to Richmond Park this Sunday evening.
Istanbul Basaksehir FK: Sengezer; Duarte (Kemen 7), Gureler, Opoku, Ali Sahiner (Ozedmir 76); Ozcan, Ergun, Pelkas (Lima 77); Turuc, Piatek (Keny 77), Davidson (Figueiredo 68).
St Patrick’s Athletic: Anang; Sjoberg, Redmond, Grivosti, Breslin; Forester (Bolger 77), Lennon; Mulraney (Kavanagh 77), Leavy, Elbouzedi (Kazeem 88); Melia (Keena 68).
Referee: Balazs Berke (Hungary).
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