Multiple Turkish champions became the opponents of the Kaunas team in the third qualifying round of the Europa League by defeating the “Hradec Kralove” team from the Czech Republic.
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The Turks won the first match away 1:0, and with the same result secured victory at home tonight.
“Beşiktaş” is considered one of the three giants of Turkish football. This team has won the national championship title 16 times – only “Galatasaray” (26) and “Fenerbahçe” (19) have done so more times.
However, the last time “Beşiktaş” became champion was in the 2020-2021 season, and last year they finished fourth, behind not only two eternal rivals but also the “Trabzonspor” team.
Despite this, the future opponent of “Kauno Žalgiris” is very formidable. This is illustrated by the fact that former London “Arsenal” forward Leandro Trossard and long-time Turin “Juventus” attack leader Dušan Vlahović joined the Istanbul team this summer. “Beşiktaş” is also represented by the famous goalkeeper Alexander Nübel, one of the best Turkish footballers Orkun Kökçü, and others.
According to “Transfermarkt” data, “Beşiktaş” players are valued at a total of 237.4 million euros. In comparison, the value of “Kauno Žalgiris” players is only 9.85 million euros.
It is estimated that the annual budget of the Istanbul club is about 300 million euros, which is at least 60 times more than the less than 5 million euros of the Kaunas team.
The first match on August 20 will be played at the “Tüpraş” stadium in Istanbul, which has a capacity of 42.7 thousand seats, and the return match will be played on August 27 at the Darius and Girėnas stadium in Kaunas.
We remind you that “Kauno Žalgiris” has so far competed in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, where they defeated “Drita” (Kosovo) and “Klaksvik” (Faroe Islands) clubs but lost to Zagreb “Dinamo” (Croatia) and moved to the second-tier tournament qualifiers.
If they manage to cause an upset and eliminate “Beşiktaş,” the Kaunas team will enter the Europa League, and in case of defeat, they will play in the main stage of the third-tier Conference League tournament in the autumn.
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