Mourinho: Benfica does play better; Rios and others have better physical fitness than Fred

Hupu reported on August 28 that in the second leg of the Champions League play-offs, Fenerbahce lost 0-1 to Benfica and fell into the Europa League. After the game, Fenerbahce head coach Mourinho attended the press conference.

Regarding the victory or defeat of the game...

We lost to a better and stronger team today.

I am talking about Benfica is a stronger club and they can provide more solutions. We were very sorry that we didn't win, but we lost to a team that was better than us.

I don't like to make excuses. Teams with stronger, better, better players and more experienced win the game, and they deserve to win.

We see Benfica's potential and strong physical fitness. Players like Rios and Barrenecia have higher physical fitness than players like Fred.

Before the game, they asked questions about Kerem Akturkolu. He is a Benfica player. He is a good football player and he scored a beautiful goal. He helped his team. Benfica advanced with this goal.

About the first half you were completely passive...

In the first half, Benfica not only performed better than us, but was much better.

We played better in the second half, but not much better either. We created two important opportunities in the final stage, but the red card interrupted our advantage period. Overall, the stronger side really won the game.

Factors that affect the victory of the game...

Talisca's red card and Semedo's injury affected our game. I don't want to say that this is the reason for the failure. Looking at these two games, Benfica actually only won one goal.

Regarding the next goal of this season...

Fenerbahce has not won the championship for several years, and we must first compete for the championship. Next we need to prepare for the Europa League, and there are many strong teams in the Europa League this season.

If we participate in the Champions League, we will play about eight games. But in Europa League, we have the opportunity to reach the finals all the way.