By- Oma Akatugba
Galatasaray’s crushing 5–1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Champions League has reignited debate about the standard of Turkish football, but head coach
insists the result does not validate criticism from Julian Nagelsmann and José Mourinho.
Nagelsmann, the Germany national team coach, recently left Leroy Sané out of his squad, arguing that the Turkish Süper Lig does not provide a high enough level of competition. Mourinho also pointed to Galatasaray’s 4–1 and 2–2 results against AZ Alkmaar last season as proof of the league’s shortcomings.
Asked by OmaSports whether these defeats confirm those criticisms, the Galatasaray boss strongly disagreed.
“To be honest, I don’t agree. Even Germany, under Nagelsmann, lost their first official international game against Slovakia. Sometimes strong teams lose matches,” he said.
“Last season, we beat Tottenham at home, we beat Manchester United, and we played big matches against Bayern Munich. It’s not fair to judge everything on a couple of results.”
The coach argued that the heavy scoreline against Frankfurt was misleading, noting that Galatasaray controlled much of the game before conceding unfortunate goals.
“In the first 35–45 minutes, we showed how superior we were. If you only look at the score and not the quality of play, you miss the picture. I don’t remember Frankfurt ever giving 65% possession to an opponent at home,” he said.
He added that while Turkish clubs face challenges, especially against deeper squads in Europe, the Süper Lig produces high-quality football and should not be dismissed.
“Some teams have more quality players, which means we have to run harder and cover more ground. But we’ve also played very important matches at a very high level. Judging us only by Alkmaar or Frankfurt doesn’t seem right.”
On Sané, he struck a diplomatic note:
“Sané’s quality, what he has already given and will continue to give to Germany, we will see very soon — also in the Champions League.”
The Frankfurt defeat has intensified scrutiny on Galatasaray, but their coach remains defiant: the Turkish Süper Lig, he insists, cannot be defined by a handful of bad results.
