Besiktas was eliminated from the UEFA Europa League after a 1-0 loss to Twente in the final match of the group stage on Thursday evening.
In the eighth and last round of the UEFA Europa League, Besiktas traveled to the Netherlands to face Twente at De Grolsch Veste Stadium. The match ended in a 1-0 victory for Twente, with the only goal of the game coming in the 76th minute.
The first half of the match ended in a goalless draw, but in the second half, Twente’s Daan Rots scored the decisive goal. A mistake in Besiktas’s build-up play led to a pass being intercepted, and Salah-Eddine crossed the ball into the penalty area from the left wing. Rots, positioned close to the penalty spot, struck the ball cleanly and sent it into the net.
Twente also had a near-miss earlier in the match when Sem Steijn’s shot in the 56th minute hit the post and went out.
With this defeat, Besiktas finished the group stage with 9 points and was eliminated, placing 28th in the standings out of 36 competing teams. Twente, on the other hand, secured a spot in the playoffs with 10 points, finishing 23rd.
Besiktas’s new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer maintained consistency by fielding the same starting eleven that had delivered a dominant 4-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao in the previous round on Wednesday, Jan. 22. The Norwegian coach did not make any changes, sticking with the squad that handed Bilbao their first defeat in the competition.
Besiktas had to make do without four players for the match. Gabriel Paulista and Tayyip Talha Sanuc were both still recovering from injuries, while Cher Ndour and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were sidelined due to a viral infection. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ndour were not included in the UEFA squad list, which kept them out of the lineup.
Despite the defeat, Besiktas will now focus on domestic competitions as their European journey comes to an end for the season.
