Our Head Coach Fatih Tekke, after the Ziraat Turkish Cup Semi-Final match we played against Göztepe, said, “A well-deserved victory. We are in the final. We are where we should be. I congratulate my players. Almost all individual performances were at a high level.”

Our Head Coach Fatih Tekke made evaluations after the Ziraat Turkish Cup Semi-Final match we played against Göztepe, which we won 2-0 to advance to the final.

Our Head Coach Tekke said, “First of all, I congratulate my team. A well-deserved victory. We are in the final. We are where we should be. I congratulate my players. Almost all individual performances were at a high level. We faced an opponent who especially in the league performs well in one-on-one pressing and high pressing. However, we had a lot of rehearsals against high pressing. We couldn’t break the press in the first ten minutes. Of course, the decision to take risks while under pressure is entirely mine. According to some, yes, it is a risk. Risks that could come at a cost, yes, I take that on. But for the team applying the press, if I’m taking this risk, then the same applies to the pressing team at the back as well.

There is something I told my players before the match. When describing Trabzon and Trabzonspor, the first word that comes to my mind should be courage. We must show this courage. The second should be fight. We showed that today. The third is, I think, unity. I can’t say we are fully there yet, but considering where we’ve come in forty-five days, I think all my players have done a very good job. Especially in this final part of the season, what we’ve been saying since we arrived still holds. I think it’s useful to repeat it again. Coming here as a coach after perhaps the two biggest names in Turkey, in one of the most difficult times in Trabzonspor’s last ten, fifteen years, and after seven weeks, looking at what we have, I’m very positive, and the words I said are still valid. Sometimes the game will make us angry. So will the results. Sometimes it will make us happy, sometimes it will upset us. Today, we are the happy side.

Specifically about my players, I must say this. All of them try to do in training what we want, what we show. We also evaluate their energy and physical conditions, especially because it’s the end of the season, and for some players I constantly say we need to play slower. I think we succeeded in that today. Today was good, but it’s over. We are in the final, where we should be. Now there is another very tough match this weekend. I hope we can get three points from that one too. And almost all of what I referred to as normalization will be realized. I also congratulate Göztepe. They have a good coach. Risky defense, fast attacks, second balls—but they also did a good job. Today, we were better.”

Our Head Coach Fatih Tekke’s Evaluation of the Göztepe Match

Our Head Coach Fatih Tekke, after the Ziraat Turkish Cup Semi-Final match we played against Göztepe, said, “A well-deserved victory. We are in the final. We are where we should be. I congratulate my players. Almost all individual performances were at a high level.”