Kuyt fired up by Fenerbahçe form

With Fenerbahçe SK securing a top-placed finish in UEFA Europa League Group C, forward Dirk Kuyt reflected on the club's European season to date and declared himself "very satisified" with an "unexpected" haul of 13 points from five games. Olympique de Marseille crashed out of the competition, in contrast, and defender Kassim Abdallah rued a string of missed chances and some lax marking for Bekir İrtegün's overhead-kick winner.

Dirk Kuyt, Fenerbahçe forward
We are very satisfied, obviously, with the result tonight, but also that we've managed to get 13 points out of five games. That was something that we wanted, but up against good teams like Marseille, Mönchengladbach and Limassol it wasn't expected from the beginning.

I think we controlled the game in the first half. In the second half, we gave them a bit too much space and let them come a bit too close to our goal, but everyone knew we were 1-0 up and with a draw we would have been qualified for the next stage. We dropped off a little bit – a little bit too much – but once again it was a good team performance. They had a few good chances at the end, but we deserved to win. We are really happy with the way we're playing in Europe and we're looking forward to the next stage.

Joseph Yobo, Fenerbahçe defender
We're delighted and it's great to have come here and got the three points, even if we knew we needed just the one point to go through. Marseille are a good side and they caused us trouble. At home, we were leading 2-0 against them and in five minutes they equalised for 2-2. It's natural when you've taken the lead that your opponents attack back, and that's why we tried to protect the goal. Ours was a great goal, the best of the season, and I'm happy for Bekir İrtegün.

Rafidine Abdullah, Marseille midfielder
We're very disappointed because I think we played very well overall. We conceded a goal from a corner. We need to progress in terms of marking from set pieces, but I really think we weren't rewarded for our excellent performance. Nothing wanted to go in for us and that was fate. Unfortunately, this competition is over for us. We'll stay close-knit and keep working as we have an important league match against Lille on Sunday.

Kassim Abdallah, Marseille defender
We defended well, but we suffer every time we make mistakes with our marking. Their player [Bekir İrtegün] found himself all alone and he scored, so there you go. We're disappointed, of course, because we dominated the game and we didn't take our chances, so we can be angry with ourselves for that. We were motivated and determined, but when you don't score you cannot win and we'll work on that.

It's a blow to our morale because this competition was close to our hearts, especially for the young players discovering European football this season. Now we'll have to concentrate on the league.