Analysis: “Two distinct halves. In the first half, despite the two goals conceded and Benfica’s ascendancy, we felt that we were in the game. We were organized, controlled and well established. In the second half, in seven minutes, we sent the rest of the game to waste. Maybe we wouldn’t reach victory, but we want to create an identity and a path and that becomes much more difficult with this thorn in our side. We are aware that in these moments many people like to hide, but within this club, in the structure, technical team and players, we have men with a big ‘H’ and this is what will make us grow.
We are aware that in these less positive moments – a bad game from us in the second half and an extremely well-played game by Benfica – it gave an impressive result. There are three points, but it is a fact that costs us and hurts us because of how hard we work every day. We apologize to the fans who came to see something different, what we can say is that we will continue to work. This path will be taken by those who are here, now and when we win, they will be the same people.”
Big blow to morale: “It has to make us think. Just like every defeat there are good and bad things, today there were many more bad things. It has to help us follow the path. We have to look forward, the past is the past, we have to reflect on our mistakes, escape the emotional issue. Many times it is not possible, the first hours will hurt, we have to extract what we did well and badly and look forward.”
