Jorge Jesus: “Lucescu analyzed the game badly”

Turkish Fenerbahce head coach Jorge Jesus commented on his victory over Dynamo Kiev (2:1) in the first round of the Europa League group stage.

Dinamo stopped our attacks with tactical fouls in the first half. In the 10th minute, the Dynamo team committed 8 fouls and in the 25th minute the goalkeepers started to play for the time. This shouldn’t happen. I don’t know if it’s customary in Ukraine, but players shouldn’t act like that. And my team fought till the end to win this match. They applied the technical-tactical principles as best they could.

I have great respect for Lucescu. This is a proven coach, but I can give him a piece of advice: Let him look at the statistics of the match and see how many fouls the Dynamo players have committed. Medical teams entered the field 8 times. I don’t know how he watched the match, but I think he analyzed it badly. I respect your opinion, but I disagree. Dinamo tried to stop Fenerbahce players with constant fouls, especially in the first half hour. In addition, their goalkeeper is constantly lying on the field to gain time. I don’t know how he sees the match, but I respect his opinion. He has an opinion, I have an opinion, but when he looks at the statistics, he will see that he is wrong.

I did not communicate with Lucescu, I did not even see him. If we had met, I wouldn’t have talked to him about it. I can understand Lucescu, they had to play very aggressively to stop Fenerbahçe. That’s why they were committing fouls often. This was the strategy they chose. And the referee allowed it. Every coach has his own strategy. He thought this was the best way. I have no comment on this. I think the opposite of his opinion. Dynamo made 20 fouls throughout the match. We had to adapt to this situation to maintain balance in the match.

In the first half, they did not shoot on our goal. They defended throughout the match. This is normal, because we forced them into it. We got a well deserved win. We reap the fruits of our labor. Our organization on the field was good. What we have to do now is to think about the game we will play against Rennes on Thursday.

We played against them in the Champions League qualifiers. We thought we could win and move on to the next round, but you know what. That’s why we wanted to respond with a win. We showed that we are as strong a team as Dynamo. The main favorites of this group are Dinamo and Rennes, not Fenerbahce. Because Fenerbahce has lost the strong image it has built in Europe in recent years. Our first goal is to fix that. We want to rotate this image again. We know we have a chance to get out of this group and we will work hard for it.

Modern football is a game in which the defense must be well organized. But there is no need to make such movements to stop the opponent, such movements made by Dynamo in the 90th minute of the match. Such movements are no longer used in the Europa League and high-level tournaments, but such movements can be seen in tournaments that we can call second and third level. Buschan is a very good goalkeeper. Neither he nor Dynamo need to take such steps. You have to respect the game and the fans,” said Jesus.

On the Fenerbahçe official website, it was also noted that Jesus pointed to Buschan: “You can now lie on the floor as long as you want. Lie down for an hour if you want. It doesn’t matter anymore,” said Jesus.