The contest was sealed off in the 53rd minute, when Besiktas scored their fourth goal. The remaining 40 minutes mattered to no-one except Edu, the Besiktas substitute, who was more than happy as he scored the fifth goal in the 88th minute.

Referee and assistants
Mr. Bezborodov had a decent game. In the days prior to the match, the Israeli media and politicians had warned once and again, as if the Turkish fans would resort to violence because of the political rift between the two states. Nothing of the sort. The fans behaviour during the match was impeccable, which should have enabled the ref. to be fair and square. And he was... Mr. Bezborodov had one problem which affected his performance, while his assistants had a graver one which had more ominous consequences: the referee didn't use the advantage rule in some cases where should have been used (minutes 13', 39' 68). His assistants' judgement in cases of offside/onside was very bad. There were clear mistakes (Mr. Golubev - 45', 82', Mr. Semenov - 31', 63') and some suspicions about other cases are strong enough though there were no good enough replays to corroborate them.

From our reporter: adir