Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce crashed out of the Champions League in his fifth game in charge of the Turkish giants.
After seeing off Lugano in the second qualifying round, the 61-year-old saw Fener lose 2-1 at Lille in the first leg of their next game last week.
They equalized through Bafode Diakite's extra-time goal in Istanbul, which sent the tie into extra time, and although the French visitors were reduced to 10 men, Jonathan David converted a controversial penalty two minutes from the end of extra time. .
Teknik Direktörümüz Jose Mourinho, maç sonu açıklarda bilduğu
– Fenerbahçe SK (@Fenerbahce) August 13, 2024
The goal won 3-2 on aggregate and booked a play-off match against Slavia Prague while relegating Fenerbahce to the Europa League.
The Portuguese chose to focus on the positive, and hinted that his new side could emulate his former club Roma and reach the Europa League final, or hope to avoid the same fate, losing on penalties against Sevilla.
He told Kontraspor: “We would never have won the Champions League. We're going to the Europa League.
“If it's in the Europa League… I don't want to continue with this sentence. If you want to know, you can watch the 2023 Europa League final.”
Mourinho tried not to be drawn from the handball penalty awarded to Jayden Oosterwolde, who had scored an own goal in the first leg.
“'It's better if I don't talk about the penalty,' said Mourinho. “Because I look at other things that have happened to me recently, only the referee knows why it was a penalty, and VAR knows.
“I am an honest person. I told my players that I am proud of them, they did everything to win.
“We got used to many things during the game, we scored twice, we had many opportunities. One team deserved to win but the other went on.'
Mourinho took charge of his first Turkish Super Lig game last Saturday, with Edin Dzeko's goal securing a 1-0 win at Adana Demirspor, but it was only 20 minutes before the manager was sent off by the referee.
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