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It is Turkey, Istanbul, "Galatasaray" - spoke London's "Chelsea" team coach Jose Mourinho after the Champions League round of 16 match. His team played away with a 1:1 draw against Istanbul's "Galatasaray" team.
"Turkish football is very emotional, and we played against a good team, with good players. It is not easy. The first half belonged to us, we had chances to finish the match then, but we couldn't finish the counterattacks. We had chances to score a second goal, it would have completely changed the course of the match.
In the second half they started to press us. They have dangerous attackers. We felt good, but we conceded a goal from a corner. Of course, neither I nor the players were happy about that, but we can't complain.
Playing here is very difficult. The result is not amazing, but "Stamford Bridge" stadium will give us an extra 10 percent of energy, just like the home ground did for "Galatasaray" today.
1:1 is better than 0:0. We cannot say that this is a poor result. They are a good team, very experienced, so it will be difficult at home," said J. Mourinho.
"Galatasaray" coach Roberto Mancini praised his players' performance in the second half, when they managed to equalize the score.
He added that after the match, J. Mourinho invited him for lunch.
"The result is good. We made three or four mistakes in the first half, but we played very well in the second. In the first half, we were afraid of something, but I am satisfied with the second half.
All players did their best, but sometimes mistakes happen. We made five mistakes during the match, and one of them cost us a goal.
In the second half, we gained a lot of confidence in ourselves, in the first half we respected "Chelsea" too much. We had to play more like we did after the break.
London awaits very tough matches, but our players proved that they can. The Premier League is one of the best in the world, and "Chelsea" is one of the best teams in the world. But now we have more opportunities than before the first match. Now our chances have increased to 40 percent," R. Mancini said.
