Turan: Hiddink Taught Me Not to Panic When Behind; I Experienced Dutch Football Culture at Barca

Arda Turan looked ahead on Wednesday to Thursday's Champions League match against PSV. At the press conference, the Shakhtar Donetsk manager spent a long time praising several Dutch football legends, especially offering high praise for Guus Hiddink.

Turan first met Hiddink when they worked together with the Turkey national team. From August 2010 to November 2011, Hiddink, who is from Varsseveld, coached Turkey and called up Turan 14 times.

"Cruyff, Rijkaard and Hiddink are all sources of inspiration for me," Turan told The Telegraph. "I played for Barcelona, and it was also there that I was exposed to Dutch football culture."

"I also learned an important lesson from Hiddink. He is an excellent coach and a great person. We played many important matches with Hiddink in the Turkey national team, and we truly reached a very high level."

"The most important lesson I learned goes back to a national team match against Belgium, when we were behind at halftime," Turan recalled. "We had a very Turkish-style passionate discussion in the dressing room."

"Hiddink walked into the dressing room holding a cup of coffee and said to us: 'Guys, keep playing like this. If we maintain this and continue doing things well, we will win the match.'"

"In the end, we won the match 3-2, and everyone understood that we could not lose our composure just because we were behind. I really learned a lot from him."

"He gave me freedom on the pitch, which was very important to me, but he also taught me what to do in every area of the field. In the first area, you have to play simply and safely; in more advanced positions, you can take more risks. These were all very important lessons," Turan said in his final comments to The Telegraph and other media.