Shocked and slightly injured, the Fenerbahce coach appeared before the media, Ismail Kartalafter his team was attacked by invading Trabzonspor fansin the wake of his opponent’s victory Olympiakou in Trebizond (2-3).
“We were attacked in a way we didn’t expect and I honestly can’t explain. From the first half, objects were thrown at us, plastic as well as metal bottles. One of them landed on my head, some others on my body, while my colleagues were also injured. But we didn’t provoke even a moment. We didn’t even fall down to stop the game. We equally wanted the match to continue and stayed on the pitch. Then we went from 0-2 down to 2-2 but managed to get the win. At the end I went to congratulate the Trabzonspor players and saw my players celebrating on the pitch when suddenly fans from the stands stormed in and attacked them“, said the Turkish technician.
“When we lost to Trabzonspor in the 22nd matchday, no one minded that they were celebrating, this is a right for every footballer. They celebrated and left the field without a problem. Why is this happening to us now? I do not understand it.! I don’t understand where this hatred comes from when there is no rivalry between our teams. We were receiving objects throughout the match, the referee should have stopped it, but he didn’t, he went to finish it under the circumstances. We are all human beings living in this country, these phenomena must end! First time in my life I experience something like this. I have a swelling on my head, but it doesn’t bother me. I am a person who grew up on the street. I’m not going to make the injured one stop the game, although I could. But I’m not like that. We all need to think carefully about what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again“, he added.
Source: Sport Fm
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