Europa League: Why Osimhen was substituted vs AlkmaaAZr – Buruk

Forum 2 days ago

Europa League: Why Osimhen was substituted vs AlkmaaAZr – Buruk

Galatasaray manager, Okan Buruk, has revealed the reason behind his decision to substitute Victor Osimhen in Thursday night’s UEFA Europa League clash with AZ Alkmaar.

The Yellow and Reds trailed 2-0 after 55 minutes of the play-off second leg tie.

Osimhen started the comeback, reducing the deficit in the 56th minute, with Roland Sallai equalising 14 minutes later.

Buruk, however, took off Osimhen 10 minutes from time with his side still trailing on aggregate.

The gaffer said he pulled off the striker to avoid injury.

“Since our other forward Morata was injured, we took Osimhen off in the last 10 minutes. It wasn’t the night we wanted. We were more hopeful. If we had scored the first goal, we could have gotten into the game even more,” he told the club’s official website.

“We can name a few names in good form in terms of performance, but we were below average in terms of team performance.”