The 2-1 win over Benfica at home appeared to provide brief confidence for Galatasaray, but they have slipped back into the disappointing ways after the loss against Benfica in the reverse fixture.

As a result, they have slipped three points behind second placed Atletico Madrid. Since there are only two match days left in the Champions League group stages, it means tough times for Hamza Hamzaoglu. The manager is reported to have accepted that Galatasaray will slip into the Europa league even with victories in their final two games, but he has denied those suggestions in his latest press conference.

Hamzaoglu claims that Galatasaray still believe that they can qualify for the knockout stages. The Turkish giants have reached the last 16 only a couple of occasions. It will be extremely difficult this time around with one of the remaining two matches against Atletico Madrid. Since the team are also struggling to maintain form in the domestic league, it has been suggested that dropping out of Europe altogether will be a good probability for domestic success. The Europa league is especially difficult to win due to the large number of matches involved, but the winners now get direct provision to the Champions League group stages.

It will be a reward hard to turn down especially with a five point gap growing between Galatasaray and Besiktas."It's too early to talk about the Europa League, we have two more games to go.Maybe it seems difficult, but I hope we will chase it. We will play to win the next two games.We played as you should against Benfica here.We pressed until the end but unfortunately we couldn't find the equaliser.At 1-1, we were about to take some attacking steps, but the unexpected second goal kept us at the back," said Hamzaoglu.