I’m no magician, Mourinho says after draw

İZMİR

Göztepe came from two goals behind and scored a last-minute goal to hold Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahçe to a 2-2 draw at home in a Turkish Süper Lig match on Aug. 17, prompting the Portuguese coach to warn his players that they should have done everything to keep the lead.

The visiting side found two goals from Edin Dzeko and Youssef El-Nesyri in the dying minutes of the first half, however, Göztepe pulled one back in the 68th minute by Koray Günter and Romulo Cardoso’s goal earned the newcomer the draw in the last minute.

Mourinho said after the match that his players have to kill time, lie on the ground if necessary, and fake injuries just like their opponents.

“If we do that, even if the referee gives six minutes of extra time, we have the opportunity to kill the game,” he said.

“So we have to take advantage of the opportunities to kill the game. The players have to think about that.”

Mourinho added that he told this to his players in the halftime.

“I am not a magician, I am just experienced,” he said.

“But I told my players that if we concede a goal, the support of the fans will be behind [the opponent], and the game will be much more difficult. In the second half it happened as I said, there was incredible support from the fans.“

The coach said the reasons for the draw were not having the ambition to finish off the match and not being as smart as the opponent.

“In some countries, it is called anti-football. In some countries, they call it being smart. We have to be like them,” he said.

Göztepe coach Stanimir Stoilov said it was a well-deserved draw.

“Conceding two back-to-back goals late in the first half was tough, but we regained our composure In the second half, we started to do what we wanted on the pitch and we got the goals we were looking for,” he said.

“I would like to thank our fans for their incredible support in this match. When we are together with our fans, we can change every game. The team really put up a great fight. Even though we had lost the game, the fight would have been really valuable,” the Bulgarian coach added.

Meanwhile, the game was marred with a scuffle involving Fenerbahçe President Ali Koç that broke out in the halftime.

Fenerbahçe said in a written statement early on Aug. 18 that Koç was on the pitch to talk with officials about Fenerbahçe away fans not being allowed in the stands when he was attacked.

“After the heinous attack, although the authorities declared that the person concerned had been taken to give a statement, it was learned that the person continued to follow the rest of the match with his accreditation card, no action was taken against him, and it was revealed to the public that he left the stadium with a change of clothes and waving his arms, thanks to the attention of a journalist,” the club said.

“A criminal complaint has been filed by our president against this football terrorist and all the officials who were negligent, and the process will be followed closely,” the statement added.

In other Süper Lig games on Aug. 17, Rizespor beat Adana Demirspor 2-1 and Sivasspor won 2-1 at Kayserispor.