Galatasaray manager Roberto Mancini has revealed that he does not know the reasons for this team capitulating in the second half against Real Madrid. The match ended in a 4-1 defeat for the Turkish club, who came into the encounter with a real hope of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League. They were ahead of Juventus in the group stages after having done exceedingly well so far, but this defeat coupled with Juventus winning against Copenhagen meant that the Italian team leapfrogged them with one match remaining.
Galatasaray need to win the final match against Juventus at home in order to stand any chance of qualification to the Champions league or they will have to play in the Europa league. Mancini came into the encounter with Didier Drogba as one of the top scorers in the competition of all time. He was only a couple of goals behind Real Madrid legend Alfredo di Stefano, but he made little impact in encounter. This was despite Galatasaray playing against 10 men after surgery Ramos was given a straight red card in the 26th minute.
“We were nearly perfect in the first half. I really don’t know what happened in the second half; I need to talk to my players. If you make mistakes against a side like Real Madrid then they will punish you. They have very strong and talented players. We have defensive problems, we need to work harder because we can’t win with big mistakes like these,” said Mancini.
Former Tottenham winger Gareth Bale scored a hat-trick in the match, which was even more difficult for Galatasaray to take since they did not have Cristiano Ronaldo to consider as a threat in this encounter. Galatasaray appointed Mancini in the hope of improving the form, but it has not shown any improvement in recent weeks.