On July 24th, in the second round of the 2024-25 Champions League qualifiers, Fenerbahçe came from behind to beat Lugano 4-3 away thanks to a hat-trick from veteran Edin Dzeko. This was also José Mourinho’s first game in charge of Fenerbahçe, and the ‘Special One’ got off to a winning start.
After the match, Mourinho said, “We ended the first game with a victory, and we will have the second game in Istanbul. With the passionate support of our fans, our goal is to win there and qualify for the next round.”
It is worth noting that the match was played on artificial turf, and Mourinho commented, “It was very difficult to play on this kind of pitch, the players were uncomfortable, they found it difficult to control the ball, the passing was also affected, in short, it was difficult to adapt. I didn’t want to talk about it before the game because I didn’t want to make excuses, but I must say it was a difficult situation.”
Later, Mourinho said frankly, “Playing on such a pitch is unacceptable, and it is equally unacceptable to play a Champions League game in these conditions.”
Regarding the 4-3 result, Mourinho said, “It wasn’t a good result. There were 7 goals, people like goals, but we conceded 3 goals, which isn’t very good. We conceded one from a set piece, which was something I couldn’t accept, to be honest, I don’t like that.”
Speaking about veteran Dzeko who scored a hat-trick, Mourinho said, “Dzeko played a great game, he scored 3 goals, scoring 3 goals in any game is a very important thing. For him, a hat-trick in the Champions League qualifiers was a very beautiful, dream-like night.”
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