Beşiktaş motivated by last season's Dynamo defeats

After Beşiktaş JK secured a crucial victory against FC Dynamo Kyiv courtesy of Egemen Korkmaz's strike on his 28th birthday, midfielder Fabian Ernst said that his side were spurred on by the memory of heavy losses to the Ukrainian side in last season's UEFA Europa League round of 32.

Fabian Ernst, Beşiktaş midfielder
We lost twice to Dynamo last season and most of my team-mates remember those games, so that was definitely our motivation. The difference from the previous encounters was that we played more aggressively tonight. We succeeded in not allowing them to play their game and kept pressuring them when they were in possession. Especially in the second half these tactics were successful but of course this requires a lot of energy.

Beşiktaş took a huge step towards claiming second place in Group E. Hopefully we can get three points in our next game against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel while Dynamo will have the harder task playing at Stoke. Spirits are high in our group and we need to capitalise on it.

Hugo Almeida, Beşiktaş forward
It's incredibely nice for Egemen to score such an important goal on his birthday. I can't remember ever having that privilege myself. Tonight's victory was not handed to us on a plate, we really had to work hard for it. Congratulations to all my team-mates because Kyiv are a tough side but we cannot afford any mistakes in the remaining games. We have a good team and our dream is to reach the final.

Olexandr Shovkovskiy, Dynamo goalkeeper
First of all I want to stress that I'm coming back from injury and maybe I wasn't fit to play at this level after all. We all realised the importance of tonight's encounter, and that is why I went up front during the last minute or so. It is a pity that the ball did not go in during those scrambles. Beşiktaş certainly had the better of the chances. We did not play well and did not create enough chances. If we play like this, how can we expect to win?