Following Beşiktaş’s 2-0 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, our Technical Director Ertuğrul Sağlam had this to say about the game:

‘‘We wanted to see how well our reserve players would perform against a fast and formidable side. We took on a team from the same country of our next UEFA Cup opponent and it turned out to be a valuable experience for us. We had a chance to give our young and reserve players more time on the pitch against a real opponent and find out the part of their game where they need to improve the most. We are going to play against a solid side in the first round of the UEFA Cup, so we must take the game seriously right from the start. We have to qualify for the Cup’s group stage regardless of how strong our opponent is.’’