St Patrick's Athletics’ hopes of playing in the UEFA Conference League proper came to an end with second half goals giving Istanbul Basaksehir a 2-0 aggregate victory in the play-off round at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium.
The Saints held out for 64 minutes and their dream of competing in the league phase ended with Ömer Ali Şahiner and Olivier Kemen scoring for the home side.
Their campaign fizzled out with no real shot on target, instead there was a late red card for substitute Aaron Bolger.
A gulf became a gorge in a matter of seconds and that was it after impressive victories over FC Vaduz and Sabah.
When it came down to it, Basaksehir did what they were supposed to do.
That came from expectation, brought on by a storied history that includes a run to the Round of 16 in the Europa League back in 2020.
St Pats want to experience that, the big nights and sense of adventure that only be provided by playing in the group stages of a major tournament.
Kenny discarded the subplots and kept it simple, and that involved congesting space behind the ball so Basaksehir had to shoot from distance.
The Süper Lig side slowly got through the St Pats’ back-line, and one of their best efforts in the first half saw a close range attempt by Berkay Özcan blocked on the goal-line by Axel Sjöberg.
St Pats did get forward, they even shouted for a penalty in the 34th minute when Kian Leavy went down inside the area.
It was 0-0 at the break and the game restarted with a run from Jerome Opoku and the Ghana international hit the ball just over the bar.
The hour mark saw St Pats best attacking spell as players like Zach Elbouzedi tried dribbling through.
Basaksehir comfortably dealt with this and their next advance led to the opening goal.
Deniz Türüç set this up by getting passed Anthony Breslin and Ali Şahiner squeezed the ball in at the near post with his right boot.
Bolger was brought on for Chris Forrester and an injection of fresh legs helped create room for an Elbouzedi shot that went out for a corner that came to nothing.
As quickly as this was put together, it ended as Bolger was shown a red card over a challenge on Kemen.
The Ghana international picked himself and headed in the winner, and booked Basaksehir’s place in the league phase.
İstanbul Başakşehir: Muhammed Şengezer; Léo Duarte (Olivier Kemen 7), Hamza Güreler, Jerome Opoku, Ömer Ali Şahiner (Berat Özdemir 77), Onur Ergün, Dimitris Pelkas, Berkay Özcan, Deniz Türüç, Krzysztof Piątek (Philippe Kény 77), Davidson (João Figueiredo 70)
St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang; Anthony Breslin (Jason McClelland 88), Tom Grivosti, Joe Redmond, Axel Sjöberg, Kian Leavy, Jamie Lennon, Chris Forrester (Aaron Bolger 77), Jake Mulraney (Brandon Kavanagh 77), Mason Melia (Aidan Keena 68), Zach Elbouzedi (Al-Amin Kazeem 88).
Referee: Balázs Berke (Hungary)
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