Fenerbahçe ready for Lyon return leg: İsmail Kartal criticizes TFF

Fenerbahçe completed preparations at Groupama Stadium for the return leg of the Champions League play-off round against French side Olympique Lyon. The portion of training open to the press began with a brief meeting between head coach İsmail Kartal and the players, followed by warm-up exercises. It was reported that during the closed session, the team focused on tactical details.

Fenerbahçe's president Aziz Yıldırım watched the training on the pitch alongside board members. Fenerbahçe will take the field tomorrow at 22:00 for this crucial match.

Speaking ahead of the match, İsmail Kartal said that they had also rotated the squad in the league match against Gençlerbirliği to give national team players a chance, noting that they had 12 chances in that match but were denied two penalty decisions. Kartal emphasized that his team had only 2.5 days of rest after that match before facing Lyon, while their opponents had a much longer preparation period of 7 days.

Highlighting this imbalance, Kartal said they had requested the TFF postpone the league match in question, but the request was not accepted. The experienced coach said 'We were wronged,' but concluded by stating that the team was nonetheless focused solely on the match ahead.