In what has been a hectic night of Europa League football, the Turkish club Besiktas have booked their place in the playoff round against Partizan Belgrade. In no small part, the former Man City strike Alvaro Negredo played a vital role in tonight's last gasp victory.
Leading 1-0 from the opening leg in Turkey, Besiktas found themselves trailing the Austrian club LASK Linz in the dying moments of tonight's game.
Having already sprung Portugal's Ricardo Quaresma from the bench, joining the likes of former Premier League players Jeremain Lens, Ryan Babel and Gary Medel on the pitch, the Spaniard Negredo was brought on with roughly 20 minutes to go.
Booked in the 85th minute of play, Besiktas were desperately searching for an away goal that would secure their passage, and, sure enough, with the game all but over it was the former City striker who popped up with a wonderful finish.
Lasting only a solitary season in Manchester, Negredo did manage to secure a Premier League winners' medal in the 2013/14 season.
Tonight though, good judgement seemed to abandon the striker, as no sooner had he scored the game's crucial goal, Negredo tore off his shirt in celebration.
Incredibly, having been booked only minutes before, he seemed to forget the rules and was duly sent-off for a second bookable offence.
In what will be a tough away trip to Serbia for the Turkish club, the striker who was a European Championship winner with Spain in 2012 will play no part. Oddly enough though, they may be missing him a lot longer than that. According to certain reports in Spain, Negredo may be on his way out of the club altogether.
According to Spanish news outlet AS, Alvaro Negredo has scored his last ever goal for Besiktas. He’s about to sign for Monaco. pic.twitter.com/ygDYrcRMl1
— Besiktas Talk (@BesiktasTalk) August 16, 2018
In other Europa League news, Cork City were knocked out by Rosenborg on a 5-0 aggregate scoreline. Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard's Rangers and Sean Dyche's Burnley both progress to the next round, with Scotland's Hibernian losing out to Molde.
