First assessment from Fenerbahçe manager İsmail Kartal

In the second leg of the UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-finals, Fenerbahçe bid farewell to the tournament after losing to Greek side Olympiakos on penalties.

Fenerbahçe manager İsmail Kartal made assessments at the press conference held after the match.

Stating that they played good football in the first half, Kartal said, "We started the game very well today. There was a magnificent Fenerbahçe in the first half. We found the goal in front of our amazing fans. The game balanced out in the second half. Then we increased the tempo, we just couldn't find the second goal. 

The players felt the stress of not finding that goal, despite their comfort in trying to advance. We made forced substitutions during extra time. Extra time was balanced for both teams.

We truly deserved to advance. I congratulate my players. The players who missed penalties today were the ones who had missed the fewest penalties until now. We couldn't advance only because we couldn't find the second goal. We feel embarrassed before our fans. Despite everything, we are looking ahead. We will continue in the league," he said.

"SOME PLAYERS COULD NOT RESPOND"

Regarding the substitutions made during the match, Kartal said, "Sometimes you change players and get a response to your moves. Sometimes you don't get the efficiency you want. Today, some responded, and some could not. These are natural things in football."

"THERE WERE FORCED SUBSTITUTIONS"

Commenting on Tadic's shooting style, Kartal said, "Tadic doesn't take many power shots; he prefers inside-foot placement shots. He has his own unique shooting style. We spoke with Fred in the 86th minute; he had been out with an injury for a long time. Thinking about extra time, our entire plan was to bring in someone more combative in his place. Szymanski had cramps, and Becao felt pain in his groin. These were forced substitutions."

"THE PLAYERS WE TRUSTED THE MOST MISSED PENALTIES"

Evaluating the penalty shootout, Kartal concluded his remarks by saying, "Bonucci is a very experienced player, and Cengiz is the same. Tadic has missed very few penalties in his career. These were the things that surprised me. The names we trusted the most were the ones who missed the penalties. We fought so hard. It is sad to be eliminated by penalties when we could have advanced by scoring the second goal in return for all this effort."

News Source: İHA