Feyenoord captain Orkun Kokcu admitted the sting he and his teammates are feeling after they were dumped out of Europe by Roma for the second year in a row.
After winning the first leg 1-0, the Dutch side fell 4-1 to the Giallorossi this evening and crashed out of the Europa League—eleven months after falling to Jose Mourinho’s men in the Europa League Conference final.
“Obviously there’s incredibly strong disappointment because we were very close to progressing. That’s why this hurts a lot,” the Turkish midfielder explained in his post-match press conference.
“Though, I learned from the defeat in Tirana (against Roma) that you can’t bask in disappointment. You have to learn to turn the page and that’s what we must do. Starting tomorrow we need to focus on our next match.”
He continued, “Roma is a great team with strong individuals. We’ve been defeated by an incredibly strong side so we should take some pride in that. Now we need to put our heads towards the league.”
