Fenerbahçe Coach İsmail Kartal: 'In Such Matches, If We Can't Score, The Opponent's Resistance Increases'

Fenerbahçe Coach İsmail Kartal expressed his satisfaction after advancing to the play-off by beating Austrian team Sturm Graz 1-0 in the UEFA Champions League 3rd qualifying round. Kartal stated, 'We played disciplined football in both matches, but only managed to score one goal. We're working on improving step by step every day, and addressing our shortcomings.'Kartal noted that they had four clear scoring opportunities in the first half but failed to capitalize on them. 'We could have ended the match early, but we're happy with the win.'

We will continue working on the Lyon match. Our match schedule is very intense, we need to protect and rest our players. There were areas where the opponent was superior to us, but we had many clear scoring opportunities, around 6-7 chances that were almost certain goals.

After thanking the fans for their support, Kartal responded to the question about Fred's farewell to the fans, saying:

Our management and transfer committee are working on this issue. There are some things between the management and us, let's wait and see what happens in time. We all have time. We've been matched with Lyon, and after 18 years, we want to give our fans the joy of playing in the Champions League again.