Jose Mourinho He suffered his first setback since his arrival at Fenerbahceunable to overcome the Lille a 2-1 defeat and eliminated from the Champions League in the third qualifying round after a draw (1-1) in extra time that closed all options for the Turkish team.
He Fenerbahce bet heavily on Mourinho to achieve a record that had not been achieved since the 2008/09 season, the last in which they played in the Champions League group stage. The Portuguese coach, accustomed to reaching the top of any European competition in almost all of his clubs, seemed the right man to return the Ottoman side to the top line.
In fact, he had just finished three seasons at Roma, winning a Conference League and finishing runner-up in the Europa League. However, Mourinhodespite the expectations of the fans of the Fenerbahce placed on his figure, deflating the balloon in the preliminaries of a duel that seemed crucial for his club.
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“He Fenerbahce “He never told me that playing in the Champions League was a necessity,” he warned. Even so, he tried by all means to achieve excellence and after winning his first match in the Turkish League he concentrated all his players to face a very difficult match in which he had to come back after losing 2-1 in the first leg.
Against a furious opponent, Lille held off the onslaught of Fenerbahce, who spent 48 million euros this summer to bring in names such as En-Nesyri, Söyüncü, Saint-Maximin, Krunic, Aydin and Tosun, among others.
Goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier was in charge of stopping all attempts by the Fenerbahcewho were met with saves from Mert Yandas and Ismail Yuksek. Even the post, which repelled a Bright Osayi-Samuel clash with seven minutes remaining, was on Lille’s side, who eventually conceded in added time through an own goal from Bafode Diakite.
He Fenerbahce achieved his objective. He managed to extend the match with a crazed crowd that smelled blood and that reached its ecstasy with the expulsion of Aïssa Mandi with a red card. With one more player for almost the entire second half of extra time, Mourinho and his players had options.
However, a handball by Alexander Djiku reviewed by the VAR gave way to a penalty that Jonathan David did not miss: in the 116th minute he established the final 1-2 to the despair of Mourinhowho suffered their first setback after saying goodbye to a competition that will have to wait for Fenerbahce.
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In other matches on the day, Salzburg sealed their qualification after drawing 3-3 at Twente. They made the most of the result from the first leg (2-1 in their favour) and put the tie almost over with three goals in the first 46 minutes from Kjaergaard, Nene and Yeo.
Slovan Bratislava also advanced to the final round of the group stage after a 0-0 draw at APOEL, Bodo/Glimt beat Jagiellonia 4-1 and will continue in the competition, while Malmo will also be joined by a 4-3 win over PAOK with Anders Christiansen’s late goal in extra time breaking the tie from the first leg (2-2).
