Mircea Lucescu: "My words have been misunderstood"

Head coach of Dynamo Kyiv Mircea Lucescu commented on his statement after the first play-off match of the Conference League qualification round with Istanbul Besiktas (2:3), which caused a great resonance in the Turkish media. Recall, the Romanian specialist said that his team in this meeting "played not against Besiktas, but against the African national team".

"My words were misunderstood. I in no way wanted to belittle or underestimate Besiktas with this statement. On the contrary, I wanted to say that the Istanbul club has managed to build a good team this season, consisting of very high quality foreigners.

And I emphasised Africa in order to glorify Besiktas in the context of successful selection. The current Besiktas is a big European-type team, as African players are part of top European clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City.

I cannot understand what any discrimination has to do with my statement. After all, I myself have worked with African players for many years. So there can't be any discrimination or racism. Speaking about African players in Besiktas, I was emphasising on the correctly conducted transfers, which led to the fact that this team is now strong enough to fight for the championship," NTVspor quoted Lucescu as saying.