🚨 Dayot Upamecano on his confrontation with Merih Demiral during France’s win over Türkiye:
🗣️ Dayot Upamecano: “The game became very intense after the red card. There was a lot of frustration on both sides, so I understand why emotions were running high.
“But Merih is an experienced player. He lost the ball, went down, and I simply told him, ‘Get up, let’s play.’
“He immediately got up and came straight toward me. He got right in my face and told me, ‘Take one more step and I’ll knock your teeth out.’
“I looked at him and said, ‘Then do it.’ [laughs]
“But I knew it wasn’t going to go any further. I wasn’t there to fight him. I wanted to play football.
“You can try to intimidate me, you can be angry, you can be aggressive, but when the game starts, I prefer to respond with football.
“We don’t need to settle things with punches or threats. You answer with your performance, your tackles, your defending and, most importantly, the result.
“Today, France did exactly that.
“Sometimes the best response to someone trying to provoke you is to stay focused and let the football do the talking.
“He wanted a confrontation. I wanted to play. In the end, the game gave us the final word.”