Van Dijk praises B. Yılmaz: 'A Real Handful'

Reflecting on the match, Van Dijk said, "Towards the end, we retreated a bit. Turkey took a lot of risks and came at us. In the end, we made it to the semifinals. We had a great celebration with our fans. We are very grateful to our supporters."

'LOTS OF TURKISH FANS'

Commenting on the large number of Turkish fans in the stadium, Van Dijk noted, "There were a lot of Turkish supporters in the stadium. I'm very proud of my team. We started well, both in possession and out of possession. Then we played more carelessly and lost balls in dangerous areas. As a result, they became more threatening with counterattacks due to our turnovers. In the second half, we had to stay calm and take advantage of the opportunities we created. We did that well. You have to do everything you can, and we did."

'PREPARING FOR ANOTHER TOUGH MATCH'

The star player continued, "You see how everyone reacts to a save, a tackle, or something else. We did this together and did everything we could to reach the semifinals. Now we need to recover and prepare for another tough match."

'A REAL HANDFUL'

Van Dijk also spoke about Barış Alper Yılmaz, "Even the first half was different from itself. We started well, kept possession. Turkey stayed back a bit. Then Turkey scored. It was a beautiful pass from Arda Güler that led to the goal. We stayed calm and started the second half. We worked hard and got the result. Barış Alper Yılmaz was constantly running. He was a real handful. It's tough for any defender. He gave us a hard time. He didn’t score, but if we were to describe him, he's truly an important player.