Fenerbahçe were eliminated from the Champions League after losing to Lille in extra time on penalties in the third round of qualifying. After the game, Fenerbahçe manager Jose Mourinho spoke to the media.
Mourinho said: “I’m a honest man and I told my players I was proud of them. We hit the woodwork twice and missed three or four big chances. Only one team deserved to win today, but we lost. Missing out on the Champions League means we miss the chance to play against the big clubs.”
“We know we couldn’t win the Champions League, but now we can’t even qualify. Maybe in the group stages, we could have beaten one or two big teams, but today we lost that chance. We can do better in the Europa League.”
“From now on, we’re going to focus on the Turkish Super Lig where we’ll compete with the same passion. We didn’t have Fred and Ferdi, two creative players today. The absence of one player is difficult, but the absence of two is even more difficult. But I’m proud of my players, they gave everything.”
“From my point of view, I’d rather be in the Champions League. I have enough experience. But in the Europa League, we also have a chance. We can compete with teams at our level. In terms of competition, we’re better off in the Europa League.”
“Usually journalists who don’t understand football focus too much on statistics. Today you saw we hit the woodwork twice, their goalkeeper made three unbelievable saves. We created enough chances. So, we had a chance to win the game, they had no shots on goal, the best player of the game was their goalkeeper. Even the strongest teams in the world will suffer when they’re missing two important players.”
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