Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk has bemoaned his forwards' wasted opportunities in their defeat to Ajax.
On Thursday night, Galatasaray stumbled to their first defeat of the season, losing 2-1 to Ajax in Amsterdam.
Kian Fitz-Jim and Bertrand Traoré provided the home team with a two-goal lead in the match before Victor Osimhen’s consolation goal.
The striker, who has been in excellent scoring form, had a rough evening in front of goal against Ajax despite netting a consolation goal in stoppage time.
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Buruk not happy with missed chances
Buruk bemoaned his team's wastefulness in front of goal and their propensity to let up preventable goals in an interview with Galatasaray.org.
He said, “In fact, we missed very clear chances and could have won the match very easily. Maybe we could have brought the score to 2-2 in one minute. Batshuayi and Osimhen had chances.
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“If we are entering and missing so many chances, and on top of that, you are conceding ridiculous goals, you lose such matches. Of course, we had shortcomings.
“We made moves in the rest of the game. My players tried to play here with the best intentions. We scored for a large part of the tournament, we created many chances.
“We are the team that created the most chances in the Europa League, we are one of the teams that score the most goals.
“Maybe we are in the first place, I don’t know, after today’s matches, but in general, we conceded too many goals.
“The reason we couldn’t get out of here, the reason we couldn’t make it to the top eight, is the goals we conceded. We didn’t concede many chances, but we conceded very simple goals. It was like that today.
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“While we should have scored, we were the team that missed clearer chances. We conceded two goals from our opponents in situations that we couldn’t even call positions and we couldn’t turn the match around. This is our first defeat, of course. It makes us sad and hurts us.”
After the game, manager Okan Buruk was upset since Galatasaray had lost and had not guaranteed a place in the Europa League quarterfinals.
The Europa League playoff draw is scheduled for Friday, and Galatasaray may play AZ Alkmaar or Midtjylland in the following round.