Jose Mourinho’s Press Conference After Lille Match: “I’m Proud of My Players!”

After the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw and saw Fenerbahçe exit the competition in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League 3rd qualifying round, Mourinho stated that his team deserved to advance.

Speaking at the post-match press conference held at Ülker Stadium, the experienced coach expressed his pride in his players.

Highlighting that they did everything both tactically and emotionally, Mourinho said, “We adapted to different conditions during the match. We missed clear opportunities, hit the post twice. Today, one team deserved to win, and the other won the tie. We suffered an economic loss. The Champions League supports us in that regard. Moreover, we lost the chance to play against the biggest teams in the world. We could never have won the Champions League, but we could have beaten some big teams. We lost that chance.”

Mourinho pointed out that the absence of Fred and Ferdi affected the result, stating, “We are heading to the Europa League. I could say more, but I don’t want to continue. We can do well there, but I say ‘if,’ and I don’t want to continue. We will wait for the Europa League draw. We were missing two creative players like Fred and Ferdi, who are intense players. Missing even one is tough, but missing two is even tougher. Overall, my players did their best, and I am proud of them. If you are curious about what I was going to say after ‘if,’ I invite you to watch the Roma-Sevilla final of the 2022-23 season. Then you will understand the rest.”

“I Would Have Preferred to Be in the Champions League”

Jose Mourinho emphasized that he is a professional and is not affected by such situations.

“I would have preferred to be in the Champions League,” Mourinho said, adding, “I have enough experience to know that we could never have reached the final or the last rounds of the Champions League. However, we have a chance in the Europa League because we will be facing teams at our level. We will have more competitive matches.”

The Portuguese coach pointed out that the opposing goalkeeper was “the man of the match” in both games they played, continuing:

“Journalists who don’t understand football much focus too much on data, numbers, and statistics. Sometimes statistics don’t reflect the game, sometimes they do. Today, we hit the post twice, and their goalkeeper made three incredible saves. This team created enough chances to win the match. In the match we played in Lille, we missed three one-on-ones. We created enough chances to win. We played against a fearless team, but their goal was to hold onto the ball, and they do that well. A team that wants to win plays with intensity and pressure, but they had no shots. Despite all the challenges I mentioned, the player of both games was their goalkeeper. Livakovic made only one save in the away game, and today he didn’t even touch the ball. These are not excuses; my players did their best, but even the biggest teams in the world suffer when they are missing two very important players. Fenerbahçe was without two players who disrupt opposing defenses. Hearing that Fred wouldn’t be available was already tough, but then hearing about Ferdi in the morning made it even harder. Today, Ferdi would have created triangles in midfield with Dzeko and Saint-Maximin, but unfortunately, we received this news this morning. Now we will move towards our goals, which are the Super Lig and the Europa League.”

“Money Decides”

Mourinho reminded everyone that they will play more matches under the new Europa League format, stating, “I don’t know why the new format of the Europa League is like this. I don’t know why this decision was made, but we have to adapt. We will have to play back-to-back matches. Now, instead of six, you play eight matches. This means playing every midweek. I hope the same thing applies to other teams in the Super Lig, and they also play. We have a good team, and we can make excellent rotations in some positions. This new format is strange. Four home games, four away games; some we will play only at home, others only away. Money decides, and we have to adapt to that.”

The 61-year-old coach, who stated that he wasn’t considering a transfer due to Fred and Ferdi’s injuries, concluded his words as follows:

“These players are injured, but they won’t be injured all season. We will ensure they return as soon as possible. I can’t think about a transfer every time a player gets injured. The transfer window is open, but I’m not asking for anything. We will do our best to ensure the recovery of our players as soon as possible. The most important tournament for me is the next tournament. We have played a lot of matches in a row. We played five matches in a short period, and many of our players didn’t have a proper vacation or preparation. Saturday’s match will be tough for us. We will focus on the league for a while because Europe is not an option right now. We aim to take points from tough away games.”