Fener 'character' the key for Zico
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
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Fenerbahçe SK coach Zico praised the character of goalkeeper Volkan Demirel after he recovered from two early blunders to emerge the hero at Sevilla FC.
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Manuel Jiménez, Sevilla coach
We had problems with strategy, as usual this season. We should have avoided conceding these two goals. It's a shock. At 2-0, Sevilla couldn't hold on because we didn't kill off the game. We always attack and attack and we gave away dangerous corners and free-kicks. We had more possession but Fenerbahçe attacked well. We were worrying and we don't know why. Sevilla and Fenerbahçe are two good teams and either side could have won. The defeat hurts because we were not inferior tonight. Good luck to Fenerbahçe now.
Zico, Fenerbahçe coach
We are very happy because we qualified and, moreover, with the way we reached the quarter-final. We showed a lot of character and we did well in the shoot-out. We played with courage to take a step into the future. I have great confidence in Demirel, the goalkeeper. He may have made mistakes but he showed character in the shoot-out. I celebrated my birthday alone for the first time, without my family, but my family was Fenerbahçe tonight. I expected Sevilla to attack, because Sevilla have players who attack a lot.