Fenerbahçe will face Lugano, Switzerland, away tomorrow at 9:30pm (Japan time) in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. Fenerbahçe managers Jose Mourinho and Aleksandar Zik commented at the pre-match press conference. Jose Mourinho said he was happy to come to Fenerbahçe, saying, “I am happy with my decision to come to Fenerbahçe. We have had 30 training sessions and five friendlies so far. Every training session has been very satisfying.” “All the players here are very happy. Everyone is growing and adapting to me.” Then the players who were first eliminated in the European Football Championship joined our team. We only had three opportunities to train with the last group we joined, but it was fun training with the group we worked with. Alex has been one of those players since day one. The most important thing for us is to get off to a good start tomorrow, not the warm-up matches. Great things have come to us,” he said.
“We came here to win.”
Commenting on the importance of the Lugano match, the Portuguese coach said: “We are not just thinking about the match in Istanbul. Tomorrow’s match is very important for me. I have come here to win.”
“Football should be played on beautiful green fields, not on artificial turf fields.”
Speaking about the artificial turf pitch at the Thun Arena where the match will be played, the 61-year-old experienced manager continued:
“The fact that it will be played on artificial turf is a choice made by the home team. The home team definitely thinks that this is an advantage for them. I always say that football should be played on beautiful green grounds, not on artificial turf grounds.” But there are still clubs who are taking advantage of this and want to use this as an advantage. Because we need to adapt to this. We have already trained in very dry and hot weather in different places. Of course, during the season we had the opportunity to train where the ground was dry and the ball movement was slow, but as I said, we need to adapt to it and play our game. And we will win tomorrow. I am happy with the work of the team.
“The city of Lugano means a lot to me”
Jose Mourinho said that Lugano coach Mattia Croci-Torti will be a very good coach in the future, saying: “I thank him for his nice words. I’m not saying this to answer him, but I truly believe that he will be a great coach. A very good coach. Because his team is very organized. ” He plays like this. He will definitely be a very good coach in the future because he built a team that knows how to organize. Because the city of Lugano means a lot to me. When I worked for Inter, my children were studying in Lugano and I used to pick them up at school. “I can say that now they are having a great time because they were a small team and they were not in the first league, and now they are playing in the Champions League qualifiers, so I can say that they have done a great job.
Alexander Zik: Waiting for the match
Fenerbahce footballer Aleksandar Zik said he wants to get off to a good start in the match against Lugano, saying, “As you know, Fenerbahce is a big team. Of course, big teams have great players. This also increases the competition. It’s a big advantage for the team in the match, too,” to improve the team’s bottom line. Fenerbahce can easily say about tomorrow’s match. Looking back at last year’s league matches, they are a team that can score a lot of goals. We’re going to play from now on. We’ve played a lot of friendly matches, so our goal is to win every match. “Whether you play indoors or outdoors…” he concluded his words.
