The Black Eagles recorded a 5 -1 victory against Maccabi Tel Aviv in their Europa League Group E opener tonight.

Backed by a sell-out home crowd, Beşiktaş started the game with a great pace, putting themselves in the lead just after 2 minutes. Almedia gathered a long ball from Aurelio, broke clear into box and chipped it home over the rushing Maccabi goalkeeper. The Portuguese centre-forward wasn’t done yet as he doubled the score with a 27th-minute header after a perfect cross from Quaresma. The rest of the first half was uneventful as the Black Eagles took their two goal advantage into the break.


At the 48th-minute mark, the Israeli visitors pulled one back through Kehat’s header, which temporarily silenced the boisterous home crowd. But the goals just kept coming for Beşiktaş as Aurelio headed home Quaresma’s brilliant cross from the left flank to make it 3-1 for the home side after 50 minutes. Two minutes later, defender Egemen followed him with another on-target header, finding the top corner of the net. Substitute Edu, who replaced injured Quaresma in the 59th minute, closed the curtain with a low drive three minutes from full time as the Black Eagles ran out 5-1 victors.