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After the Champions League quarter-final in Madrid between the teams "Real" and Istanbul "Galatasaray," the royal club took a solid step towards the semifinals. "Real" achieved a crushing victory of 3:0.
After the match, the victorious coach Jose Mourinho did not rush to underestimate the opponents. "Miracles happen, why can't they dream?" - the Portuguese coach rhetorically asked.
"We respect "Galatasaray," so we looked at these matches very seriously. We knew they have a good team and fantastic attackers, so we paid a lot of attention to defense. In my opinion, we defended better than we attacked. We could have scored more goals, we didn't take advantage of opportunities, but we played very well in defense.
If we score a goal in the second leg – they will have to score five. However, in football, I have seen many incredible things, so nothing will surprise me.
Istanbul is a difficult place to play, they will fight with all their might. We have to go there very focused. They will try to do everything to write their name in history. Football history is full of miracles. Why can't they dream?
I know this is not the end and I will try to convince the players," said J. Mourinho.
Meanwhile, "Galatasaray" coach Fatih Terim admitted that his team's chances of eliminating the three-goal deficit at their home ground are slim.
"Considering our hard work and training, we didn't expect to concede so many goals. In such matches, you have to minimize mistakes to a minimum. "Real" dominated, I expected that. The match in Istanbul will be tough. We would like to return home keeping hope, but that won't happen. My players did their best.
Turkish football clubs must know that in matches of such a high level, you have to take advantage of opportunities. You need to stop thinking and acting emotionally. If we had taken advantage of the previous opportunities, we could have left Madrid scoring a goal or two. Our goal in the first half could have changed the game completely.
We faced a great team whose goal is to win the tournament. They need to be congratulated. The mastery on both sides was not equal, and sometimes you just can't achieve what you want. We will fight with all our might in the second leg, but "Real" is very close to the semifinals. It's very hard to play against "Real" with a three-goal deficit, but we will try and do our best," said F. Terim.
