Mourinho on Fenerbahce overturning 3-1 Rangers Europa League deficit
12/03/2025
uefa25
12/03/2025
uefa25
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00We will continue with our head coach, Erhan Bey.
00:05You have to talk to the coach for Turkish translation.
00:08First of all, I would like to wish Erhan Seven TRT Sport good luck.
00:19Coach, last week you had a good game, good formation and good results.
00:25But tomorrow's game will be played with two different disadvantage scores.
00:29Will this cause a change in your game system?
00:34Or will Fenerbahce play with their normal game system?
00:37And tomorrow's game...
00:39Shall we ask one by one?
00:40Okay, I will finish a sentence.
00:42The key word of tomorrow's game is patience.
00:46I would like to say thank you and good luck in order to close the two differences.
00:50I would like to say that I believe that you will pass the tournament.
01:05We had a week to process what happened in the last match.
01:15And there is one obvious conclusion, which is the result is a reflection of our mistakes.
01:29So, I would say that at this level, mistakes normally cost you matches and qualifications.
01:43But it is open until it is open.
01:54So, I don't want even to have a feeling of we have a disadvantage, we are losing 3-1, we play away.
02:06Anything that can, let's say, disturb our self-confidence, I don't want to think about it.
02:16I just want to think that, as you are saying, in the last 19 matches we played 18 good matches and 18 good results.
02:27And one bad performance against Rangers and one bad result against Rangers.
02:32We all believe that our team in this moment is the team that was 18 matches getting results.
02:41And we are not the team that played against Rangers in the last Thursday.
02:47So, we think about this match and nothing else.
02:53We know that Sunday we have a very difficult match.
02:57We know that we are going to land in Istanbul at dinner time on Friday.
03:04We know all that.
03:08We know the importance of the Championship for us, the domestic competitions for us.
03:13But until it is open, it is open.
03:16And tomorrow, of course, we have to try not to repeat the mistakes.
03:21Because the mistakes against a team that played like Rangers did.
03:27Very defensive, low block, very closed, waiting for the mistake, counter-attack.
03:35Against a team that plays like this, you cannot make mistakes in possession like we did.
03:42Jose, how important will it be to try and turn the crowd and get the early momentum,
03:47given that despite Rangers' win last week against Fenerbahce,
03:51they've struggled at home in the last three games, they've lost the last three games.
03:54Will that be key to try and get their own fans against them, get them nervous and try and get the early momentum?
04:00I don't want to think about what can happen to them.
04:07To be honest, I have one little doubt that only tomorrow during the match I can feel it.
04:17I don't know if Ibrox, as a very iconic British stadium like many in Scotland, in England,
04:29I don't know if they will accept a very defensive performance like they had in Fenerbahce,
04:37that was successful for them, but a very defensive performance.
04:42I don't know if they are going to accept.
04:44And we are prepared for both.
04:47We are prepared for Rangers to try to play the same way,
04:54in a low block, waiting for our mistake, counter-attack,
04:57Deserj, Cerny, these fast people, Diomande, or Ibrox,
05:06or Ferguson decides to play in a different way and they have a go at us,
05:12and they try to score before, and they try to start very, very strong.
05:17And going in the direction of some of your Turkish colleagues' questions,
05:23you use the word patience.
05:28I don't know if we have to be patient in case we have the dominancy of the game against a defensive team,
05:35or I don't know if we have to be strong defensively to cope with the first impact of a home team
05:44that wants to try to kill the tie. I don't know.
05:48Only tomorrow the game can tell us.
05:51But we know what we want to do in both occasions.
05:55We had this period of time where we could work.
06:00We could work both ways, attack a defensive block,
06:05trying to build against a team that presses high.
06:09We are ready for anything.
06:12Hopefully we can perform, and hopefully we can fight until the end,
06:21which is the only thing that I demand from my players.
06:25I don't demand we have to come here tomorrow and win 4-0, we have to qualify.
06:30I don't demand anything like that.
06:32The only thing I demand is that we have to come here and have a go.
06:37Jose, you've only managed here once before, I think, with a friendly with Chelsea in 2007.
06:43Can we get your memories of that, if you have any?
06:46What did that game tell you about the atmosphere?
06:49If you ask me the result of that match, I cannot tell you.
06:53I have no idea, especially because it was a friendly.
06:58I know Scotland, I know Scottish guys, I have Scottish friends.
07:03Of course, many years of England, where there are similarities in the way you live football.
07:09But my best memory here of Ibrox, you don't know because I was Eden,
07:17but it was a Rangers-Celtic.
07:20I came here for that match, that was good.
07:23What was the score of that game?
07:25I don't know, but it was a couple of weeks before I played the final against Celtic.
07:30It was 2003, something like May 2003.
07:36Rangers-Celtic, nobody knew me at that time.
07:39I could come, I could walk.
07:41I finished the game, I walked with the crowd.
07:44Good times for me.
07:46What did that day tell you about the atmosphere that your team is going to experience tomorrow night?
07:51I think they have to enjoy it.
07:53Even if it is hostile, hostile in the sense of they want Rangers to win, of course.
08:00I think they have to enjoy it.
08:02The best place to play football is in the UK.
08:07Barry Ferguson was in earlier saying that you and your team would have been hurting after last week's result.
08:14Have you been hurting and have you used that to train over the last seven days?
08:19I'm not hurting.
08:21I'm not hurting.
08:23I think Rangers is not a better team than us.
08:28I think we have a chance of qualifying.
08:35It's not hurting or it's not I want revenge or we have to go there and show we are better.
08:42It's nothing about that.
08:44It's just the fact that I honestly think we are better.
08:49But as I was trying to be very honest after the match there and even today, we deserve to lose.
08:57We deserve to lose.
08:59I didn't use at that time a penalty that could be a penalty, Fred that was suspended and is a fundamental player for us.
09:07I didn't try to use anything because we made mistakes.
09:13They capitalised on our mistakes.
09:15They were motivated.
09:17They were fighting together.
09:19They deserve to win.
09:21There are no bad feelings.
09:24There is no frustration.
09:26There is nothing.
09:27We have a match to play and we are so committed with our league.
09:32We have such an important match on Sunday that if I feel we have no chance, I'm preparing for Sunday.
09:41But I'm not preparing for Sunday.
09:43I'm preparing for tomorrow because I think honestly that we have a chance.
09:46So until we have a chance, let's go.
09:49Last question, please.
09:51Jose, if you get the result that you want, would it be the great escape?
09:55Would it be one of the better results?
09:58I know you've won so many trophies.
10:00You've won the competition, won Champions League.
10:02But if you beat Rangers here by more than two goals, what kind of win is that?
10:06What kind of achievement is that?
10:08Penalties.
10:09Or on penalties.
10:10You still need two goals to get to penalties.
10:12I know, I know.
10:13I have almost 200 matches in Europe.
10:16But honestly, I don't remember losing at home by two.
10:23I think I never lost at home by two.
10:25So I never had the experience of going on the second leg like that.
10:30But I won at home by two and I lost by three away.
10:38I wasn't a dog and I won.
10:40I was favourite and I lost.
10:42Anything happened to me.
10:45And if you ask me, is it impossible for us tomorrow to do the job?
10:49It's not impossible.
10:51It's not impossible.
10:52And because it's not impossible, we come with everything we have.
10:57And we are not thinking that Sunday we have a very difficult match to play in Istanbul.
11:03We come with everything we have.
11:05In the end, if France is better than us or we keep making mistakes,
11:11if France is better than us, they deserve to go through.
11:14If we keep making mistakes, we deserve to go out.
11:18So let's see what happens tomorrow.
11:21Thank you, Antalya. Good evening.
11:23Thank you so much.