Mourinho’s Fenerbahce knocked out in qualifiers

Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce suffered an early exit from the Champions League in just his fifth match in charge of the Turkish giants.

After seeing-off Lugano in the second qualifying round, the 61-year-old saw Fener go down 2-1 to a stoppage-time winner at Lille in the first leg of their next tie last week.

They drew level through a Bafode Diakite own-goal in added time in Istanbul, sending the tie to extra-time, and though the French visitors were reduced to 10 men, Jonathan David converted a controversial penalty two minutes from the end of the added period.

Teknik Direktörümüz Jose Mourinho, maç sonu açıklamalarda bulundu

🔗 https://t.co/Vd8OXkoMUO pic.twitter.com/saJWBdIyCb

— Fenerbahçe SK (@Fenerbahce) August 13, 2024

The goal sealed a 3-2 win on aggregate and booked a play-off showdown against Slavia Prague while relegating Fenerbahce into the Europa League.

The Portuguese chose to focus on the positives, and hinted his new side might be able to emulate his previous club Roma and make it all the way to the Europa League Final, though hopefully avoid the same fate, losing on penalties against Sevilla.

He told Kontraspor: “We would never have won the Champions League. We are going to the Europa League.

“If in the Europa League… I don’t want to continue this sentence. If you are curious, you can watch the 2023 Europa League final.”

Mourinho tried not to be drawn on the penalty for handball awarded against Jayden Oosterwolde, who had scored an own-goal in the first leg.

“‘It’s better if I don’t talk about the penalty,’ Mourinho said. “Because looking at other things that have happened to me recently, only the referee knows why it was a penalty, and the VAR knows.

“I am an honest person. I told my players that I was proud of them, they did everything to win.

“We adapted to many things during the match, hit the post twice, we had many opportunities. One team deserved to win but the other team advanced.’

Mourinho took charge of his first Turkish Super Lig game last Saturday, with Edin Dzeko’s goal ensuring a 1-0 win over Adana Demirspor, but it took just 20 minutes before the coach was booked by the referee.