Bursaspor captain Omer Erdogan had the unenviable task of marking Carlton Cole in his side's 1-1 draw with West Ham United on Wednesday evening and was impressed by what he saw.
Cole put in a typically bullish performance as he lead the line in a 45-mintute run out for the Hammers and Omer admitted afterwards that he found that the 25-year-old England striker hard to handle.
"I think Carlton Cole is a very good player. I played against him in the defence in the first half and he is very strong and very fast. He is a quality player," Omer said.
Both sides went into the match on the back of some intensive work during their respective pre-season training camps in Austrian sunshine. After all of their efforts on the training pitch, the 32-year-old Omer, who can operate in defence or midfield, believes the match provided the perfect platform for both sets of players to gain match sharpness.
"Neither team was 100 per cent but it was a good friendly game before the season. We were tired as we had been training hard before and this is the first game we played against a Premier League team.
"The match started good for West Ham and they scored early and then we played better. I think West Ham changed more players in the second half and then we controlled the game a bit more. I think the draw was the fair result for both teams."
Kieron Dyer opened the scoring for West Ham after just three minutes, only for Turgay Bahadir to equalise for the Turkish Super Lig outfit after half-time.
West Ham United conclude their pre-season tour with a game in Slovenia against ND Nura 05 on Thursdaya fternoon. whufc.com will have live text updates from the game, which kicks-off at 4.30pm UK time.