Galatasaray beat Juventus 7-5 on aggregate in the Champions League round-of-16 play-off to advance to the last 16. Victor Osimhen scored a crucial goal in extra time. After the match, Osimhen gave an interview.
Journalist: It was a dramatic game with so many factors. First of all, congratulations. Are you happy with the team’s qualification?
Osimhen: Thank you, yes, I’m very happy for our team. We’ve made it to the next round. I think it’s important to send a message that in Turkey, the only team that can truly put this country on the map of world football is Galatasaray. So in that sense, I’m extremely happy.
To be honest, I don’t think there’s much to praise about the team’s overall performance. Because I’ve said in previous interviews that Juventus are not opponents you can beat easily. They fought with all their might until the very end, and even after going down to ten men, they gave everything they had. I think they can be proud of themselves. And we have to be honest with ourselves – this performance really isn’t something to boast about.
I’m happy that Galatasaray have qualified. We only needed that one goal to get through to the next round. So I think we still have a lot to improve, and I’m sure the coaches will take care of that. There’s a lot to learn for the next stage. Because I expect we’ll face strong teams again – this is the Champions League, after all. You can’t perform like this against top sides, and in that sense, we’re hungry.
We can’t just perform well at home; we have to take that same energy to away games too. We have to stay focused, even in front of their fans, and make sure we give everything. It’s not easy, of course – we’re playing in Turin, and I think it’s always difficult against Juventus. But I think all of us have to raise our level and take that fighting spirit to them, to let them know we’re here to compete too. This performance was definitely underwhelming, but I’m still happy with the qualification. It’s really, really great. So we’re looking forward to the next round.
Journalist: How did that goal feel?
Osimhen: Yeah, it was okay. I saw the goalkeeper thought I’d shoot for the far corner, and then I noticed a big gap between his legs. So for me, it was a clear and simple finish.
Journalist: I’d like to ask you – you’ve scored many goals in your career, where does this goal rank in importance? Because this goal was huge, but you’ve also scored plenty of goals at Napoli, for example. Where does this one stand in your heart, since it directly sealed Champions League progression?
Osimhen: I mean, in terms of the Champions League, this is the most important one, because it gave us calm. After the score became 3-1, I scored that goal. It allowed us to stay focused and calm down. Even if we couldn’t score again, we could defend comfortably because we were leading 6-5 on aggregate. So yes, this goal was really, really important. So important.
