buoyant beşiktaş paint istanbul red published: thursday 25 october 2007, 0.55cet
beşiktaş jk 2-1 liverpool fc
sami hyypiä's own goal and bobo's late clincher got beşiktaş off the mark against the 2006/07 runners-up.
by yakir mizrahi from inönü stadium
beşiktaş jk were celebrating a famous win after an early own goal and a clinical bobo finish sealed a thrilling victory against liverpool fc in istanbul.
unhappy return the luckless sami hyypiä put through his own goal for the second time in five days and bobo doubled the lead with eight minutes left to make steven gerrard's headed response academic. beşiktaş moved two points clear of bottom side liverpool in group a to ensure the reds endured an unhappy return to the scene of their 2005 triumph.
bright start both teams went into the match desperate for points: beşiktaş having lost their first two games without scoring, and last season's runners-up having been held at fc porto and beaten by olympique de marseille. beşiktaş, whose coach ertuğrul sağlam was serving a one-match suspension leaving mutlu topçu in charge, began brightly as serdar kurtuluş shot over from distance three minutes in. shortly after, ryan babel's fine run won a corner which came to andriy voronin, whose strong effort was deflected wide by rodrigo tello.
own goal but the 13th minute was to prove unlucky for liverpool and hyypiä in particular. forward bobo cut into the box down the left, and although pepe reina saved his strike, steve finnan's clearance hit jamie carragher and fell perfectly for serdar özkan. his shot deflected in off hyypiä, wrong-footing reina and continuing a bad week for the finn, who also scored an own goal in saturday's derby against everton fc.
liverpool respond after that shock, the visitors rallied and home goalkeeper hakan arıkan had to be alert to deal with attempts from voronin and john arne riise. on 20 minutes gerrard combined superbly with dirk kuyt but hakan arıkan was in the right place again. babel's powerful drive went over on the half-hour, but the lively home fans were delighted that their team recovered from this difficult spell, though they lost midfield anchor serdar kurtuluş to a calf injury, koray avcı taking his place.
bobo close liverpool led the first-half shot count with eleven efforts in all, yet they found the opening ten minutes of the second period difficult as the beşiktaş faithful kept up a barrage of noise which seemed to put the premier league side off their game. eventually voronin carved out a chance as he headed on to gerrard, whose strike flew just over. yossi benayoun was then introduced, but at the other end federico higuaín came on and beşiktaş came close again, bobo – who had ten minutes as a makeshift goalkeeper at the weekend – finding the side-netting.
clincher gerrard looked to set up benayoun but the brilliant hakan arıkan emerged to smother. three minutes later it was reina's turn to prove his worth, tipping away an attempt from higuaín. bobo missed from close range with 12 minutes left, though not long afterwards he made no mistake when sent clear, slipping the ball through reina's legs. gerrard's diving header from behind the penalty spot gave liverpool hope, but they remain on one point and must defeat beşiktaş at anfield in a fortnight.
