Thursday's first leg at Tupras Stadium was the most comfortable night yet of Vincenzo Italiano's short reign. Besiktas had 75% of the ball, outshot Žalgiris 21-3 and did not allow a single shot on target. The debut of Dusan Vlahovic, their newest star signing, was the cherry on top.
The shutout was no outlier. Six competitive matches into the season, Italiano's side have won all six without conceding a goal, 9-0 on aggregate. That includes two double headers in the Europa League qualifiers against Midtjylland and Hradec Kralove and a league game against Eyupspor, as well as the Thursday's win against Kauno.
The clean-sheet streak is well deserved. The cumulative expected goals against Besiktas across those six games is just 3.91. Opponents have mustered 50 shots in total, but only 17 on target and just six of them being considered as big chances.
The defence led by Emirhan Topcu and Tiago Djalo has been the main weapon of the Turkish side so far. And even when they're beaten, they have another high profile signing in goal to back them up. Away at Hradec Kralove, down to ten men for the last 20 minutes, Besiktas' new number one Alexander Nubel saved eight shots and prevented 1.23 xG.
Vincenzo Italiano seems to have perfected Besiktas' defence, and after an emphatic 3-0 win he's hoping the offensive side of things will start moving too. Four of the team's six triumphs were narrow 1-0 wins, with Besiktas even underperforming their own xG, scoring nine goals on 13:39 xG.
For Italiano, the former Fiorentina and Bologna boss hired in June to end Besiktas' five year title drought, it's almost a dream start. If his team doesn't self destruct next Thursday in Kaunas, they will be back in the Europa League. And with a formidable defence like this and the promise of Dusan Vlahovic and Leandro Trossard starting to warm up in attack, they can go very far in the competition.