Beşiktaş fell far behind Shakhtar in terms of physical quality. Beşiktaş didn't just lose the first leg. Abraham was also injured and forced to leave the field. From what I understand, Abraham could be sidelined for at least two or three weeks, perhaps even longer.
Beşiktaş opened the season on June 28th despite knowing they would be playing in the knockout stages. Shakhtar opened the season on June 20th. There's only an eight-day difference between them.
Beşiktaş needs to make urgent transfers. They need right and left backs.
I saw Orkun was significantly absent. Jurasek was quite poor. Beşiktaş could improve in the coming weeks.
To be honest, the result of the Beşiktaş vs Shakhtar match didn’t surprise me because I expected Shakhtar to win.
I could see that Shakhtar was better prepared for this match and I think they fully deserved the victory.
Before their third goal, Shakhtar kept possession and passed the ball around for over three minutes and Beşiktaş couldn’t do anything about it.
It was a high-scoring and entertaining game.
Tammy Abraham’s injury was really unfortunate for Beşiktaş. I hope it’s not a long-term injury, because as far as I know, they don’t have another striker in the squad.
I think this is a classic situation for Turkish teams. They're not starting the season prepared. Their squad planning is completely flawed. Abraham is injured, and all they have is Semih Kılıçsoy, who wants to join Cagliari. He knows he won't get as much playing time as he wants at Beşiktaş. Perhaps the management won't allow Semih to join Cagliari due to Abraham's injury.
Beşiktaş still has significant shortcomings, not just at forward, but in many other areas. I know they'll be playing in the Conference League knockout rounds. I don't think Beşiktaş can even qualify for the Conference League in its current form.