Besiktas 1-1 Rio Ave (Rio Ave advance 4-2 on penalties)
Rio Ave earned an impressive penalty shoot-out victory over Turkish giants Besiktas to keep their Europa League campaign alive.
As the unseeded side facing such a prestigious club away from home on the continental stage, few would have fancied Rio Ave to have what it takes to upstage Besiktas, but they showed excellent quality on the ball to come from behind and deservedly progress to the Europa League play-off round.
The victory sets up a massive match for Rio Ave, who will now host Italian giants AC Milan in the Europa League playoff round and for a chance to play in this season’s group stage, after Milan defeat Bodo/Glimt.
Besiktas took the lead early on, Guven Yalcin’s header after a quarter of an hour giving Rio Ave an even steeper uphill battle - but they were not deterred.
Indeed, Rio Ave continued to play their own game, producign some excellent quick passing, and though they had the post to thank on a couple of occasions, they hit the woodwork themselves and created some good goalscoring opportunities.
Time was very much running out though, and it was only in the 85th minute, when Bruno Moreira connected with a Carlos Mane cross, that they managed to level proceedings.
Besiktas very nearly broke Rio Ave hearts as stoppage time approached, a one-on-one opportunity fantastically pushed onto the post by the feet of shot-stopper Pawel Kieszek to keep Rio Ave in the game, which went into extra time.
Both sides had decent opportunities over the following 30 minutes, but the best chance was saved until last as Carlos Mane got onto the end of a deflected shot right at the death, but his low effort was smartly pushed away Yuvakuran - and penalties were required to separate the sides.
Taking second meant that all the pressure was one Rio Ave after Besiktas scored their opening two penalties, but through goalscorer Bruno Moreira and centreback Aderllan Santos converting from the spot, they swiftly made it 2-2 to throw the pressure back over to Besiktas.
Wellinton’s wild effort which sailed over the bar gave Rio Ave the advantage, with Nikola Jambor following up with a calm penalty to put Rio Ave 3-2 up, while Kieszek saving Cycle Larin’s penalty then took all but handed Rio Ave the tie - and Matheus’ emphatic effort ensured that Rio Ave qualified against the odds.
