Guus Hiddink distraught after back-to-back Euro 2012 qualifying losses
It was a very tough week of Euro 2012 qualifying for Turkey who lost back-to-back matches against Germany and Azerbaijan, and manager Guus Hiddink is not too pleased.
"I cannot remember a time when a team of mine lost two qualifying matches in a row," he said. "This is one of the worst days of my career. Our opponents outfought us and they deserved to win."
Turkey lost back-to-back matches falling 3-0 to Germany at the Olympiastadion in Berlin and losing 1-0 away to lowly Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
"Germany are a world-famous team so I can live with that defeat, but I can't accept losing to Azerbaijan," Hiddink added. "We have been without Arda Turan - a very important player - for both of these
games, but we cannot complain. If Azerbaijan play this counterattacking game against other teams they will spring some upsets, and I'll be delighted when they do."
Hiddink was under fire in the Turkish press after the loss to Germany for some of the decisions he made concerning who would play and who wouldn't. Hiddink was also criticized for comments he made about
the Turkish media and people from the Turkish football community saying, "we are talking as though we are the number one ranked team in the world."
Hiddink has an impressive managerial record and has brought countries such as South Korea and Australia further in international tournaments than they had ever progressed previously. Turkey made it all
the way to the Euro 2010 semi-final before losing to Germany, so the expectations for Hiddink are high this time around.
The pair of losses now drops the Turks into third place on six points behind Austria and Germany, and Belgium are hot on their heels.
Turkey will have a very important match when Euro 2012 qualifying matches resume in March of next year when they play Austria – a fixture which could decide which country finishes second in the group.
Tags: