Jose Mourinho's confession after Lille game in UCL!
Following Fenerbahçe's 2-1 defeat to Lille in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, head coach Jose Mourinho shared his thoughts on the match. Mourinho said, "I hate to say it, but I miss Fred. He's an important player for us. That's the situation."
Mourinho's statements after the match are as follows:
"Right now, we’re down 2-1 at halftime in this tie. We will play the second half at our stadium. So, I want to say 'let's go.'"
"WE DID A LOT RIGHT"
"We have many absences. We've been working for 6-7 weeks. A Champions League match, even a qualifier, is at a very high level. There are many things that haven’t become automatic yet. I could say that two deflected balls turned into goals for them, but that would be pointless. It's more accurate to say we conceded a goal from our own throw-in and another from a turnover in the first zone in the 90th minute. We also conceded from a set-piece in Lugano’s first match and another from a turnover in the first zone. We paid the price for our mistakes."
"We conceded two goals on the pitch but played well. We created many chances. In some of the positions we created, their goalkeeper wasn’t even in the goal. We did a lot right."
"I MISS FRED"
"I hate to say it, but I miss Fred. He's an important player for us. That's the situation. Things like this can happen during a season."
"We played the first half of the tie away. We played against a good team that has been working together for a long time. Now it’s Kadıköy time. We’ll wait for them. They will have a break, but we have a league match on Saturday. More important than the second leg of this tie is the league match we’ll play at home on Saturday."
"NO SURPRISES"
"The opponent's play didn’t surprise me. I watched all their matches. They played their last match against Celta Vigo with the same team. They’re a good team with different dynamics. We studied their dynamics well and didn’t have any problems. We found solutions to what they did structurally; there was nothing we couldn’t handle. It was a good, intense match. Both teams did their best to win the first leg. There were no surprises."
"You can never know how a match will go, but honestly, I think the result will be different. Lille won’t defend at Kadıköy because it's against their nature. Just as we played football here, we will play at home. The difference will be the 40,000 fans pushing us. I don't think it will play a significant role. It will be a great match. I like the Lille team. I also liked my team today, except for the mistakes we made. We created chances and missed them. Some of our mistakes were these. The goals we conceded were not own goals; they were deflections. We made mistakes before that. We lost the ball from a throw-in and conceded a goal from a turnover. I believe we can turn this tie around. We’re used to being behind. We’re used to changing the outcome. Now we’re waiting for Lille at Kadıköy. However, we’ll focus on the league match first and forget the second leg for now."