İsmail Kartal: “Fenerbahçe is still the group leader”
Fenerbahçe visited the Bulgarian representative Ludogorets in the UEFA Europa Conference League. The yellow-navy team left the match defeated with a score of 2-0. Ismail Kartal commented on the loss during the press conference after the game.
In the 4th match of the UEFA Europa Conference League Group H, Fenerbahçe visited Ludogorets.
While the Yellow-Navy team lost the match 2-0, they faced their first defeat in the group. Ludogorets’ goals were scored by Piotrowski in the 18th minute and Seco in the 90+2nd minute.
Fenerbahçe maintained its leadership with 9 points, while Ludogorets reached 6 points.
After the match, Fenerbahçe’s Head Coach Ismail Kartal made statements during the press conference.
The experienced coach said, “We are sorry. We are aware that we disappointed our supporters here in this cold weather, but we are still the leaders of this group. We are looking forward.”
Ismail Kartal also discussed Yusuf Akçiçek, who played for the first time at the age of 17 for the Fenerbahçe A team, stating, “Yusuf has been occasionally attending training sessions since the beginning of the season. I want some players from the youth academy. We are both scanning the players in the academy and considering if we can integrate players there. We gave Yusuf a chance in a challenging match. He showed how much we trust him. He also displayed a good performance. I congratulate him.”
Regarding the performance of the midfield players, the experienced coach said, “Although we had more possession, we couldn’t be productive. Due to our lack of productivity, we couldn’t create opportunities and find goals. Crespo had a yellow card. We substituted him to avoid the risk. Ismail was already suspended. We turned to a two-striker formation, made all the moves, but we couldn’t create clear chances, and we lost.”
