A week ago in Istanbul, “Beşiktaş” was superior 3:0, and the return leg of the UEFA Europa League qualification final battle will take place this Thursday at 8 PM at the Darius and Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas.
The winners of the pair will advance to the main stage of the Europa League, while the losers will have to settle for the Conference League group.
“Our goal is to play in the Europa League group,” said “Beşiktaş” head coach Vincenzo Italiano in Italian at a press conference held in Kaunas. His thoughts were translated into Turkish.
VIDEO: Kauno Zalgiris – Beşiktaş Maçı Öncesi Basın Toplantısı | Dariaus Gireno Stadyumu | Canlı Yayın
Kauno Zalgiris – Beşiktaş Maçı Öncesi Basın Toplantısı | Dariaus Gireno Stadyumu | Canlı Yayın
– Playing in Europe is an important goal for us. We want to achieve a good result (in Kaunas) and advance to the main stage.
The good result from the first match is our advantage, but we cannot say that everything is over. We must remain 100 percent focused. We have to win, to be in Europe, and to achieve this goal – 90 minutes remain.”
“We look at this match as if the first one ended 0:0,” noted the “Beşiktaş” head coach, explaining why we will not see one of Istanbul’s brightest stars, Leandro Trossard, in Kaunas.
“He has a minor injury, so he couldn’t play. I will field those players who will give their all,” said V. Italiano, downplaying the unexpected loss suffered in the Turkish league over the weekend.
– Losses are part of the game. There will be setbacks on this journey. What’s important is how we react. We must learn and be prepared. We cannot perform poorly, negatively. We must step onto the field with clear heads and be fully focused only on the upcoming battle. The past is in the past. Now we face a challenge in Europe, which we do not want to lose. We will do everything to prevent that from happening. We must learn from that failure and raise our game to the highest possible level.”
“We want to reach the main stage of the Europa League,” echoed “Beşiktaş” defender Emirhan Topçu to the coach. “We want to go as far as possible in Europe. However, our priority now is a good result in Kaunas.
We played a good first match and brought a good result. We have an advantage, but we came here to win again. If we tried to protect the result, it would be dangerous. We want to show our best game and think as if last week’s match never happened.”
We remind you that the Turkish team, whose budget is about 350 million euros (including money allocated for player transfers), is not short of stars.
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