Galatasaray will face Dinamo Kiev in the 7th week of the UEFA Europa League. Before the match, Coach Okan Buruk and Ismail Jakobs made statements at the press conference.
HERE ARE OKAN BURUK’S STATEMENTS
“DON’T LET OUR OPPONANT’S SCORE DECEIVE US”
“It is an important and critical match. Our target for the top 8 in the Europa League continues. It is an important match for this. Do not let our opponent’s score deceive us. They are leaders in their own league, they have never lost. There are big differences between the Europa League and the Ukrainian League, but they have good players. “They have halftime, they haven’t played a match for a long time, we followed the friendly matches.”
“WE CARE ABOUT EVERY MATCH”
“You can’t say ‘We don’t care about the matches, you don’t concentrate’ to the team that has won 17 away matches in a row. We care about every match, we prepare 100 percent, we respect the opponent. In the last match, we dominated the second half very much. The ball did not go in. You can show how well we played the second half, we concentrated We showed that we are in the league and in Europe. That’s why we are ahead in the league by 6 points. We only had 3 draws. The ball did not enter in the matches against Eyüpspor and Hatayspor. They are a team that dominates the league and competes for the top 8 in Europe. We won all the home matches, we want to win this match and advance to the next round. My players care about every match and concentrate, but they start every match the same way. “It’s difficult. We play a lot of matches, not just as Galatasaray… Turkish Cup, Europa League, league, national team… In a place where so many matches are played, players can have psychological difficulties. This is quite normal. We are doing well.”
“OUR SPARE CENTER IS SHORT”
“Currently, of course, our bench is narrow. There are no Roland or Eyüp Aydın in the Europa League. They are not on the list. It is important for us how many players we have on the bench. We have a good 11. Those coming from the bench are important, but the number of players who start the match and those who will enter the game are important to us. We are in the last two matches. Even if we made a transfer, these players would not be in the squad. After the Ajax match, we can write the transfers on the list. “We can increase it, we can touch it. This is our job, we will make our players more ready.”
“OUR GOAL IS TO PLAY IN THE FINAL”
“The first goal in Europe is to be among the top 8. Our main goal is to play in the final in San Mames. We think about it and dream about it. There is a long way to go. The draw you will draw, the teams you will play for, the match day, injuries… There are a lot of things.” But to play in the final again as a Turkish team and to repeat the success in Europe is in Galatasaray’s genes. There are important teams, there are strong teams. It is an advantage that we will play with the 36 teams available in the future. “When we look at the matches we won and the game we played, we dream.”
“NO NEED TO LOOK BACK”
“What do you think about Mourinho’s words ‘In my opinion, we are ahead’?”
“Actually, the fixtures… When we look at the last two matches, we beat two tough teams such as Göztepe and Başakşehir and drew with Hatayspor. The ability to play the matches is more important than the difficulty of the matches. We did it last year. We won 17 matches in a row away. We can play these matches well. With our players and When we show unity with our fans, we did the same last year and won 17 matches in a row. Our goal is to win all the matches until the end of the league. “There is no need to look back. We will mind our own business. That’s our only thought right now.”
“May SOLSKJAER BE GOOD FOR TURKISH FOOTBALL”
“I hope it will be good for Turkish football. He is an important coach. He did good things as a player and a coach. He is welcome to our country. It is good for such names to come to our country. I hope it will be good for both Beşiktaş and Turkish football.”
“OSIMHEN IS A TOP LEVEL CENTER”
“Osimhen’s 6 goals were not valid due to offside. Did you have a meeting about this issue?”
“He is a top-level center forward, both for the world, for Europe and for our league… Strikers are sometimes active in order to gain priority depending on the position. I think the important thing is to be in the positions. We do video-analysis on all matches. We have been giving the example of Burak Yılmaz for years, Turkish football He is one of the best centre-forwards. Burak would also move around the defense, he would go offside, and if he did not, he would score a goal. Osimhen would also move around the defense and sometimes mislead the defense. “We show how the center forward can be better with video analysis rather than how to avoid being offside.”
“THE NUMBER OF MATCHES WE CLOSED WITHOUT A GOAL IS VERY LOW”
“The most important thing is that we are one of the teams that take the most positions both in Turkey and in Europe. We are the best team in finishing in Turkey. We are in the first place when we look at the positions we enter and the goals we score. One match does not enter, they all enter one match. The important thing is to get into position.” . My players get into position and continue this game, we continue the offensive game that the fans want. We conceded more goals than last year, it is true that the number of matches we finished without conceding a goal is one of the things we are unhappy about. “We have to overcome it by working. The number of goals we score is good, but the goals we concede are also high. We will work to improve. Individual performances are also important in the match, mistakes can happen. Our goal is to have a Galatasaray that concedes fewer goals.”
ABOUT GABRIEL SARA’S LATEST SITUATION
“We will talk to Yener Hodja for the last training. Among our plans, we were thinking of including him in today’s training. There is nothing clear. We will talk. Will he be in the training and match squad? We will have a meeting. Other than that, we have no shortcomings, we will look at his situation today.”
Ismail Jakobs’ statements are as follows:
“Every match is very important in the Europa League. If we win, we will take a big step. We believe that we can win something in Europe, too.”