Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu has said that these things can happen in football in relation to Italy and Turkey not making it to the World Cup, according to a report in the Turkish broadcast media.
Speaking to reporters after Turkey’s 3-1 defeat against Portugal last night that ended their World Cup qualification hopes, via FCInternews, Hakan Calhanoglu explained that these things can happen in football and that the Italians will certainly be disappointed.
“The Italians did not even go through, they will be disappointed. It’s football, this can happen sometimes.”
Turkey were put under immense pressure at the start of their match against Portugal last night and Hakan Calhanoglu thinks that was down to his team being hesitant.
“We are sorry not to be able to go to the World Cup. We were unable to enter the game in the first 15 minutes, nor to do what we wanted, we were a bit hesitant.”
Turkey were 2-0 down but they then pulled a goal back and were awarded a penalty. Burak Yilmaz stepped up but saw his penalty saved by the Portuguese goalkeeper.
Hakan Calhanoglu thinks that the striker should not be blamed, as it could have been anyone who made that mistake at that moment, including him.
“The coach motivated us and gave us strength to take control of the game. Then we scored, maybe things could have gone differently if we had scored the penalty, and by that I’m not saying it’s Burak Yilmaz’s fault, who took responsibility for kicking the penalty.
“He is the captain of our team, maybe I could have missed it too, as well as my teammates. He had scored with Latvia, this time it went badly.
“We are a team, we are a family. From now on, we must look forward. This match was positive for us. We played with a new system, the 3-4-3, we felt at ease. We didn’t play with fear. It is not easy to play against Portugal in Portugal.”
