Slap in Ole's face! Besiktas trounced at home in nightmarish season opener

Turkish clubs have never been more active on the market than during the current transfer window. Unlike Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, which are allegedly ready to splurge vast amounts on high-quality names like Victor Osimhen, Jadon Sancho, or Marco Asensio, Besiktas didn't spend much, but still brought in some renowned names like Joao Mario and Orkun Kokcu from Benfica and Tammy Abraham from AS Roma.

Still, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's crew suffered a genuine fiasco in their opening game of the season, losing at home to the Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk 4-2 in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League qualifiers!

Not even esteemed football names, both on the pitch and on the bench, could help the Turkish side against Shakhtar's "Brazilian horde." Namely, the visitors' starting lineup included six Ukrainians and five Brazilians, while four more players from the largest South American country were benched?!

In the end, all Shakhtar's goals last night were scored by the Brazilians, Alisson, Eguinaldo, and Kevin (a brace)!

Done deal! Osimhen has had 75,000,000 reasons to make this decision

Abraham's spot-kick effort and Joao Mario's late goal gave Solskjaer and his team a ray of hope ahead of the return leg, but by all accounts, Besiktas will continue their European path in the UEFA Conference League qualifiers, facing either the Irish St. Patrick's or the Estonian Nomme Kalju. That would be their second ECL participation after the 2023/2024 season, in which they were eliminated in the group stage.

Either way, this is a very disappointing start to the new campaign for Solskjaer and his lads.