After the Diyarbakırspor match, Beşiktaş Manager Mustafa Denizli talked to the press:
“There are a variety of reasons why we came up with a draw tonight. First of all, we played an extremely resilient side who knew how to defend under pressure. They are also an experienced team, and they’ve been through all these before. We dominated most of the game and created a flurry of clear-cut chances, but despite camping inside their box, the poor finishing denied us the win. If you miss so many chances, it gets frustrating and you begin to panic, losing control completely. In these types of matches, you have to play smart and be patient until the final whistle. Otherwise, you let your opponent take the driving seat and force you into mistakes. The more panicky you are, the stronger they get.Secondly, the though matches we’ve played lately are taking their toll on our players. We’ve tried to rotate some of our players, but to no avail. They sure need some time off to rest. Then, we couldn’t start the game with our regular lineup; because we had some slightly injured players, and I didn’t want to risk them. However, everyone fought real hard out there and did everything but score. On the other hand, we could’ve conceded a goal due to poor passing in the second half. So, in a way we should even be thankful that the match ended up in a draw. Now, we will take the necessary steps to make up for this 2-point loss.
Instead of criticizing harshly, our fans should help Nihat regain his confidence back. He came close to scoring on 3 occasions but failed to hit the net; but every other match he is getting better, and we don’t want to lose him because he is still a superstar.
All in all, we are not happy with tonight’s result, but we must put it quickly behind us because we have a very important Champions League tie against CSKA Moscow coming up-a match we have to win at all costs.”
