The Turkish national team lost 1-2 to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the European Championship, ending their campaign. After the match, Turkish captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu thanked the fans and emphasized that playing for your country is a joy.
Speaking to the media at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin after the match, Çalhanoğlu said: “I want to thank everyone who worked hard, especially my teammates, everyone gave their all. I want to thank the coach and the whole team in particular, we’ve been away from home for a month, we haven’t been able to be with our children, but we know that playing for your country is something different, we’ve tried to represent our country to the best of our ability in every game. I also want to thank the fans who support us, they make us happy.”
Looking to the future, Çalhanoğlu said: “We have a long way to go, we lost, but we accepted it, that’s football. After taking the lead 1-0, all teams will defend properly, but we conceded two goals in five minutes, which disappointed us a little. We still created chances after going 1-2 down, but unfortunately we couldn’t take them. Now we have to look ahead, show the pride of Turkish football, because no one expected us to get this far.”
Çalhanoğlu said that the experience gained in the European Championship will help the team to grow, he said: “This tournament will make us better. We got this far, and that’s something to be proud of. There are many young players in the team, it was the first European Championship experience for most of them, they will learn from this kind of game. As long as we are united, we can achieve anything, we have proven that. The final applause from the fans was very important for us, we have gained a great deal of emotion. That’s part of football.”
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