Recipe for victory: “With strategy, with a lot of work capacity, with some happiness in the mix… It’s a mix of things. We knew that we would have to suffer to get points from Alvalade. At the beginning of the game, we had some difficulty in our strategy. We assumed a structure that allowed Doumbia and Altimira to stay high on the field. Our intention was for Inácio to go up and, with long balls, do damage. We were successful from a certain moment, in the first half, and, in the final part of the first half, we weren’t I liked it, because the players started to play too far back and we had to correct it. In the second half, we knew that Sporting would tighten up. There was a lot of fighting with Robinho and Brau to be closer to Sporting’s wingers, when we closed the distance, the one-on-one situations became easier for the full-backs.”
Approach to the game: “We knew that the wingers are always open, because they have the ability to go one-on-one. It was important to hold on. The full-backs were very afraid of one-on-one, when they should have been more open and closer to not let them come in too quickly at them. In the end, with a bit of luck, but we also managed to create some opportunities, we had some shots that could have had a different outcome… We could never come here and dominate the game, but I think we deserved the victory for what we did.”
Feeling with which he leaves Alvalade: “This is football. Today, we are up there, tomorrow morning, we can wake up and be down there. There is no euphoria, there is a lot of humility and there is a lot of ambition in this team. That’s what we want to maintain. Highlighting, once again, the number of fans here, in the stadium. It was fantastic to hear Académico in the middle of Alvalade””.
