Améd beat Beşiktaş 3:2 at Diyarbakır Stadium in the Süper Lig regular season round six on Sunday. The hosts took all three points despite Beşiktaş holding 70 per cent of possession and launching 157 attacks to the home side's 46. The result leaves Améd seventh with ten points and drops Beşiktaş to two points clear at second, though they now sit one point behind the leaders after five matches each.
G. Orban opened the scoring in the thirteenth minute, and D. Saba doubled the advantage before half-hour when he found the net in the twenty-second. Beşiktaş had spent the first half searching for a way through, but Améd's back line held firm. The home side switched to a back three at the break and brought on four players — M. Khalil, T. Djalo, E. Poku and J. Olaitan — all at the restart.
Améd made it 3:0 in the fifty-ninth minute through F. Soyalp, who finished a move that Beşiktaş had dallied on defending. D. Vlahović pulled one back for the visitors in the fifty-fifth, but the home side were not ready to yield. A. Cisse received a red card in the eighty-fourth minute after picking up two yellows, and Beşiktaş finally got a penalty in the ninety-eighth minute when O. Kokçu converted.
The statistics tell a different story from the scoreboard. Beşiktaş completed 529 passes to Améd's 271, created two big chances against four, and registered 157 attacks. Yet Améd's eight shots on target yielded three goals, while Beşiktaş managed only one from eight attempts. The home side had 46 attacks and four big chances created, with an expected goals figure of 1.47 compared to the visitors' 2.11.
We had given Beşiktaş a 71 per cent confidence prediction for a home defeat, but the match went another way. It was not a collapse — Beşiktaş have hit a wall against a side that had nothing to lose. Améd saw the game out despite being reduced to ten men, and the three points came from moments rather than dominance.
