Fenerbahce’s 3-0 defeat of Royal Antwerp in the UEFA Europa League Group D match, played on the road, received wide coverage in the Belgian media.
According to the Belgian press, “Antwerp, who was knocked out against Fenerbahçe in half an hour and displayed a disgraceful image”, has largely lost hope of staying in the UEFA Europa League.
Het Nieuwsblad, published in Flemish, referred to the fact that the match was played without spectators due to Antwerp’s penalty and commented, “Fortunately, no one was allowed to see this: Weak Antwerp was eliminated by Fenerbahçe”.
The 2-2 draw in the match played in Istanbul two weeks ago gave hope to the Belgian team for the match in Antwerp.
Royal Antwerp Coach Brian Priske said on Wednesday that they only think of a win against Fenerbahce.
The Danish coach stated that it is essential for them to beat Fenerbahçe in order to continue in the UEFA Europa League and emphasized that playing the match without spectators cannot be an excuse.
“This cannot be an excuse because we always played to empty stands during the pandemic period,” said Priske, adding that “the press is not interested in what the commentators and fans say,” he said.
Although the match was played without spectators due to the events in the Eintracht Frankfurt match in September, Royal Antwerp fans did not leave their teams alone around the Bosuil stadium.
Likewise, many Fenerbahçe fans showed their support in front of the hotel where the team was staying on Astridplein.
Enthusiastic fans bid farewell to the Fenerbahce caravan with applause and fireworks.
Having experienced a troubled process in the Turkish Super League, Fenerbahçe went to Antwerp with the password of absolute victory in order to continue on its way in the UEFA Europa League.
Starting the match well, the yellow-dark blue team achieved the score that determined the result in the first half hour.
Fenerbahce, who took the lead 1-0 with Mert Hakan Yandaş in the 9th minute, made the situation 2-0 with Max Meyer in the 16th minute.
In the 29th minute, Mergim Berisha scored Fenerbahçe’s third goal.
Fenerbahce, who came out with the comfort of a 3-0 score in the second half, managed to keep the score with his controlled game and increased his score to 5 by achieving his first victory in the UEFA Europa League.
Het Nieuwsblad newspaper stated that Antwerp team lost 3-0 to Fenerbahçe after a dramatic first half and commented, “Fortunately, no one was allowed to see this.”
According to the newspaper, Antwerp was eliminated from the UEFA League with this result, unless there was a great miracle.
“DEADLY EFFICIENT FENERBAHÇE”
The sports service of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT (Sporza) commented that “very weak Antwerp was left naked in the empty stadium” in its news titled “Deadly productive Fenerbahçe did not forgive Antwerp’s mistakes”.
In the news of Sporza, he emphasized that the posts and goalkeeper Butez did not give a fourth chance to Rossi and Zajc, as well as Fenerbahce.
RTBF, broadcasting in French, said, “Antwerp, which lost 3 -0 to Fenerbahçe, almost said goodbye to its European dream.”
The HLN newspaper used the headline “Weak Antwerp embarrassingly lost to Fenerbahçe in the empty Bosuil”.
According to the newspaper, which stated that Fenerbahce achieved the final score in the first half hour, Antwerp, which had a dramatic evening, largely distanced itself from its European goal.
Antwerpen newspaper also reported the result with the headline “Antwerp is on the verge of being eliminated from Europe after disgracing Fenerbahçe”.
In the newspaper’s comment, it was stated that if Antwerp also lost against Anderlecht in the Pro League match on Sunday, coach Priske could risk losing his seat.
La libre newspaper, in the news it announced with the headline “Antwerp was knocked out against Fenerbahçe in half an hour”, pointed out that the Belgian team took the last place in their group with a single point with this score.
Le Soir newspaper also wrote that “Antwerp suffered a heavy defeat against Fenerbahçe” and wrote that the Belgian team’s dream of seeing spring in the Europa League fell through.
–
