Jose Mourinho: “We Played Well but Miss Fred; Confident of Turning the Tie Around at Home”

After the first leg of the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, where Fenerbahçe lost 2-1 away to French side Lille, head coach Jose Mourinho expressed his belief that the outcome would be different in the second leg.

Speaking at the press conference held at the Hainaut Stadium, Mourinho said, “We are currently down 2-1 at halftime. The match is not over. We will play the second half at our stadium, so I want to say ‘let’s go.’”

When asked about what is lacking in the team, the Portuguese coach responded:

“There are many things missing right now. We have been working for about 6-7 weeks, and even a Champions League qualifying match is always at a high level. There are many things in the team that haven’t become automatic yet. We conceded two goals from deflected shots, one after a throw-in and one from a turnover in our defensive third. We conceded two goals but played well, created many chances, and did many things right. I don’t like to say this, but I miss Fred because he is an important player for us. Things like this can always happen during the season. We played the first half of the tie away and against a good team. We are down 2-1 at halftime, now it’s time to go to Kadıköy. We will wait for them with our yellow and navy blue flags. It will be a holiday for them, but we will play a league match at home on Saturday. The league match we will play at home on Saturday is more important than the second half of this tie.”

When asked if Lille’s performance was a surprise to him, Mourinho replied, “No. We watched every one of their preseason matches. They played their last games with the same team. There was nothing surprising for us. They are a good team. We were well-prepared as well. We found solutions to what they did. It was a good match. Both teams did their best to win the first half of the tie. There were no surprises.”

When asked about the return leg, the experienced coach said:

“You never know how the match will be. I think the result will be different in the return leg. I don’t think Lille will defend in our stadium, it’s against their nature. We will play the same game at home as we did here, the only difference will be that our fans will be behind us as a driving force. I liked our team today, except for the mistakes we made. We missed chances and conceded goals from deflected shots and a turnover. We need to fix this as quickly as possible. I believe we will turn the tie around because we are used to being behind and changing the result. We will wait for Lille in Kadıköy. We will forget the Lille match and start thinking about the match we will play on Saturday.”