Istanbul's Besiktas soccer club on Thursday night pummeled Maccabi Tel Aviv 5:1 in the opening round of the Europa League tournament. The heavily guarded match came against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Turkey and Israel after Ankara announced a downgrade in relations with Jerusalem two weeks ago over the latters refusal to apologize for its raid on the Mavi Marmara in which nine Turkish nationals were killed. Last week, Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador and other senior officials, and Turkey's prime minister has been consistently ramping up tensions with Israel. Despite concerns for the safety of the Maccabi players in Turkey amid the diplomatic crisis, local police were able to maintain calm and the match concluded without major incident. Before the match, a few hundred anti-Israel protesters gathered at Istanbul's main Taksim Square, where activists were heard saying through loud speakers, We call on Besiktas fans not to forget our Palestinian brothers and to protest against Israel during the match. In our opinion, it is enough for the audience to scream three times, F--- Israel,' and we will be happy. The protesters intended to march to the stadium where they planned a large demonstration, but only a few managed to get close enough to the stadium and then quickly left after local police, wearing gas masks and armed with clubs and shields, arrived on the scene. Besiktas impressive victory over Maccabi was enough payback for the fans at the game, who avoided any provocations, except for a few who shouted, Palestine, Palestine, before being silenced by the overwhelming majority of the audience. However, toward the end of the match, the majority also joined in the Israel bashing, singing, F*** you, Israel, to the tune of Hava Nagila. In the days leading up to the match, Israeli sports analysts predicted Maccabi's defeat to Besiktas, something that became even more apparent after the Turkish club managed to score the first goal within the first three minutes of play. The Turkish players succeeded in scoring four more goals as sportscasters blamed Maccabi's poor defense for the rout. The Israeli club managed to pull back only a single goal through Roi Kehat's header a few minutes into the second half, but only two minutes later Besiktas scored another goal, eventually leading to Maccabi's fifth loss to Turkish opposition.
Like our newsletter? 'Like' our facebook page!
