Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk has explained why he substituted Victor Osimhen during their UEFA Europa League match against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night.

The Turkish club was losing 2-0 by the 55th minute in the second leg of the play-off tie. Osimhen gave them hope by scoring a goal in the 56th minute, and Roland Sallai later equalized 14 minutes after that.

Despite the comeback effort, Buruk decided to take Osimhen off with 10 minutes left in the game, even though Galatasaray was still behind on aggregate.

Buruk explained that the decision was made to prevent Osimhen from getting injured, especially since their other striker, Álvaro Morata, was already out due to injury.

“Since Morata was injured, we took Osimhen off in the last 10 minutes. It wasn’t the night we wanted. We had hoped for a better result. If we had scored first, we could have controlled the game more,” Buruk told the club’s official website.

The coach also admitted that while some players performed well, the team’s overall performance was below expectations.