Saints go down battling in Istanbul as their European dream ends

St Patrick's Athletics’ hopes of playing in the UEFA Conference League proper came to an end with second half goals giving Istanbul Basaksehir a 2-0 aggregate victory in the play-off round at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium.

The Saints held out for 64 minutes and their dream of competing in the league phase ended with Ömer Ali Şahiner and Olivier Kemen scoring for the home side.

Their campaign fizzled out with no real shot on target, instead there was a late red card for substitute Aaron Bolger.

A gulf became a gorge in a matter of seconds and that was it after impressive victories over FC Vaduz and Sabah.

When it came down to it, Basaksehir did what they were supposed to do.

That came from expectation, brought on by a storied history that includes a run to the Round of 16 in the Europa League back in 2020.

St Pats want to experience that, the big nights and sense of adventure that only be provided by playing in the group stages of a major tournament.

Kenny discarded the subplots and kept it simple, and that involved congesting space behind the ball so Basaksehir had to shoot from distance.

The Süper Lig side slowly got through the St Pats’ back-line, and one of their best efforts in the first half saw a close range attempt by Berkay Özcan blocked on the goal-line by Axel Sjöberg.

St Pats did get forward, they even shouted for a penalty in the 34th minute when Kian Leavy went down inside the area.

It was 0-0 at the break and the game restarted with a run from Jerome Opoku and the Ghana international hit the ball just over the bar.

The hour mark saw St Pats best attacking spell as players like Zach Elbouzedi tried dribbling through.

Basaksehir comfortably dealt with this and their next advance led to the opening goal.

Deniz Türüç