Jose Mourinho reveals the only positive thing about the match result

In the first leg of the UEFA Europa League Round of 16, Fenerbahçe was defeated 3-1 at home by the Scottish side Rangers. Speaking at the post-match press conference, Fenerbahçe manager Jose Mourinho said, "We were bad everywhere on the pitch today. It might sound funny, but this is actually a good result. After the performance we showed, the result could have been different.

Goalkeeper Butland made great saves. We had a penalty situation. It would be wrong to talk about the referee after such a performance. We were completely bad as a team.

We lost the duels. We couldn't move the ball quickly. I don't like to say this, but Fred's absence also affected us. Both Fred is playing great and the team was playing great with him. We felt his absence.

We made incredible mistakes in defense. We couldn't control the balls played behind the defense. In my opinion, we deserved the punishment we received. If you ask me 'is the tie over', I don't think the tie is over yet. There are 90 minutes or 120 minutes left," he stated.

Responding to a question about the impact of the substitutions on the game, Mourinho replied, "We started the match with a defense of Çağlar - Skriniar - Yusuf. Therefore, we had rested him (Yusuf) in the last match. When (Çağlar) Söyüncü got injured, we had to bring on Djiku. So, who could we have played with? When we fell behind in the score, we switched to a back four."

"THE ONLY POSITIVE THING IS THAT THERE IS A SECOND MATCH TO BE PLAYED"

The Portuguese manager shared his views on the tie with the following words:

"It doesn't matter to me. There is another 90 minutes. From my perspective, there is nothing positive about today's match. Everything was wrong. The goalkeeper made very good saves. The only positive thing is that there is a second match to be played."

"DO NOT CELEBRATE TOO MUCH"

When asked, "Did today's game surprise you?" while being reminded that Rangers had been struggling in recent matches, Mourinho said, "I wasn't surprised. If you listened to yesterday's press conference, I couldn't have shown more respect. Today, Ferguson was pragmatic; they played with a back five. They did a good job defensively as much as they could. The goalkeeper saved very clear chances. They won the duels. Dessers and Cerny hunted us with attacks they constantly played behind us on the counter-attack. Butland violated the 6-second rule. He held the ball for 30 seconds. They put in a very competitive performance. They deserved the win. For Rangers, do not celebrate too much. That is the only advice I can give them. They should be calm right now; it is not over yet," he said.

News Source: İHA