A 'warrior Beşiktaş' message from Vincenzo Italiano

In the first leg of the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, Beşiktaş defeated Danish side Midtjylland 1-0 at home. Beşiktaş manager Vincenzo Italiano made statements at the press conference held after the match.

Starting his words by expressing that they had a perfect night, Italiano said, "I saw a very beautiful stadium tonight. I saw an incredible atmosphere. Especially the fans are truly our driving force. Thanks to them, we can fight until the end. We had a wonderful night, and I thank everyone very much for that. I also saw excellent quality from the boys.

They were very attentive and very hungry, and I am very happy because of these. I want to congratulate the boys again. If you ask what didn't go well, we could have scored more goals to make the second leg more comfortable. But I am still happy with what I saw today. Now we will rest a little. Then we will start preparations for the second leg again. Because that place will truly be a battlefield. It was a perfect, very positive night. I congratulate everyone and from now on we will start our preparations to continue moving forward," he said.

"I am a person who lives matches like this"

The Italian manager, when asked about his excited demeanor on the sidelines throughout the match, replied, "I am a person who lives matches like this. This is something in my nature. I am a very spontaneous person in this regard. I really do this involuntarily. Because I want to help my players. That's why it's as if I am an extra, the 12th man there, and I can say this is truly my state of mind. They already know me by now. They know what kind of man I am. I love living the match with them. It's as if I am trying to explain things to them that they don't see, like a third eye. I am always trying to push and challenge them. I am trying to raise their energy even more, and I have always done this, honestly. This is not something new. I like to re-watch the positions. I like to re-read the game, so I am always looking. At the same time, I am trying to help my players that way. Because maybe I can read things they don't see or can't read in a different way and I try to explain it to them. If I need to talk about tonight again, I am very happy. I am especially happy because of the mood and energy of the boys on the field. Now the second leg is in Denmark. It will be a difficult match, but I am happy today because of my observations. I think we didn't start badly at all, we started well."

"We tried to use the advantage of being the home team"

Emphasizing that they tried to play with pressure and especially use the advantage of being the home team, the 48-year-old manager said, "There was a really beautiful atmosphere. In fact, this atmosphere pushes the opponents back a little, can scare them a little, and we tried to use this. That's why I think we gained more momentum. I especially didn't want us to stay too much in one-on-ones on the wings. I think we were good in defense today as well. We put forward a good strategy. We only conceded one goal, we will work on that too. But I think our defense was quite good when we had the ball. We have talented players up front. I expect them to score goals, to create goals. I think we were good in the first half, we could have been a little better in the second half. But why didn't that happen, because they pulled their defensive lines lower. At the same time, we were tired and they didn't leave us much space because they waited too much in the back. But I think it was still a wonderful evening," he said.

"We need to be better physically"

Saying "We need to be better physically," the black-and-white team's manager continued as follows:

"This might be the first thing I can say. We even made substitutions in the second half. To increase the rhythm because the rhythm had dropped a little. We tried to increase it with the substitutions. We actually did, but it seems we couldn't do much damage. We couldn't hurt them much, I can say that. We needed to get to the penalty area faster. We needed to work on leaving our wings more isolated so they could force one-on-ones. At the same time, we have players who shoot very well from inside the penalty area. I have more expectations from the full-backs inside as well. We have been working here for 20 days. This is a short time. But I am still very happy with what I saw in such a short time. Because I really think we put forward something good. We will be even better. There are some things we need to handle, but we especially need to be better physically. If we are better physically, we can play this game for a longer time. We can continue this."

"We want to do our best and advance"

Vincenzo Italiano pointed out that they have made the start of a long season and that they will experience many emotions throughout the season, saying, "We started the season with a lot of young players. Then players came from the national team slowly. Then transfers came, like İlhan, like Salih. Outtara also came. But he wasn't 100 percent when he arrived. Sometimes there can be problems with players coming from the national team. Sometimes they are not ready. This can sometimes be a problem. At the same time, you cannot play these players immediately. Then there are injury risks. That's why we have to wait for these players. We need to rest now. We need to regain our energy. Because the second leg will be a very difficult match. Midtjylland can turn into a very dangerous team when playing at home. Today the opponent was down to 10 men, I think we could have played better against 10 men. We could have done more things. But today is the first day of a very long journey. It's just the beginning. We have only played our first match and there will be many more matches ahead of us. Some matches will be very beautiful, some will be bad, some will be difficult. We will experience many emotions together throughout the season. Right now, our job is entirely to build a team that has a warrior character and truly has a Beşiktaş identity. We are working on this right now. Our goal right now is to advance in Denmark. I think we will do everything there today and we want to do our best and advance," he said.

"I want to instill the desire to win"

Noting that he dreams of a Beşiktaş that takes 40 shots every match and that he is trying to establish this concept, Italiano said, "We need to produce more goal chances. This should be one of our most important goals. In fact, I think we found a lot of goal chances in the first 15 minutes when the teams were equal at 11 vs 11. We were even able to convert this into a goal. When they were down to 10 men, we were able to use this advantage. At the same time, we created a lot of goal chances, we shot, and this should actually be our style. What is this style? A Beşiktaş that goes in front of the opponent's goal a lot, tries to create a lot of goal chances, and sees little ball in its own goal. I think we were good today, and we need to be like this. I want to open a parenthesis. I think we need to be better at set pieces. We need to be more concentrated on them. Because you can win or lose a match thanks to set pieces. But I think it will be better if we continue like this. The Beşiktaş in my dreams is a Beşiktaş that takes at least 40 shots in every match. I want to instill this concept. I want to instill the desire to win, and we were actually like that today, and we must always be like that," he evaluated.

News Source: 12punto