March Silva was very displeased with the expulsion of Jhon Durán after the match between Santa Clara and Benfica (1-2), recorded on Monday, had ended. At a press conference, the Eagles’ coach revealed that the Colombian forward assured him that he “didn’t do anything” and asked that the images of the events be released without cuts.
“Regarding the end of the game, I already said it in the flash and I’ll say it again. You’re asking me something that, as you can imagine, is impossible for me to see, when there are close to 50 people on the pitch. If you ask me if I saw anything, I didn’t see anything. If I told you at that moment ‘I didn’t see Jhon Durán doing anything’, I’d be lying to you, because it’s impossible. My objective at that moment… I even spoke more with the Santa Clara players than with the We ended up talking a lot more with one or another player who was involved in that matter – not involved in a physical way, but I was more nervous – and with a lot more Santa Clara players than with ours. We already had enough people around at that moment. And I managed to be calm enough, because, already having a yellow card, maybe it would be the ideal time for them to give me the second yellow card, because, at the speed with which they gave me the first one, maybe they would give the second one at the same speed. I wasn’t going to do absolutely anything, be in that mess”, Marco Silva began by saying.
“In relation to the end of the game, normally, when one or another player speaks, if the players on the benches start to run, it creates a buzz that is sometimes greater than what actually happened. What I can tell you, and I already said in the flash: I have the absolute guarantee from Jhon that he did absolutely nothing. And I invited Sport TV… I know you don’t have all the images. If you did, you would really put them all up, and for a long time. I invited Sport TV to put them up all the images, direct, without any interruptions in between. And we don’t need to come with cell phone images from the stands to show everything. And, if Jhon Durán did something, I’ll be here to punish myself. But, being realistic and honest with you, if he did anything, that’s not what he told me. I will be here at the next press conference to take responsibility for this. At this moment, I have to take him at his word, he did absolutely nothing”, he assured, before challenging the Disciplinary Board to withdraw the red card shown to the player.
“In all the images we’ve seen so far, we see absolutely nothing from Jhon Durán. If he didn’t do anything, I sincerely hope that there is some justice in this and that (the red card) is removed from him, because it’s one thing to give him a red because we saw something… I would like to know what the referee is going to write in the report. If Jhon Durán didn’t do anything, why did he give him a red? That’s it simply”, he stressed.
Marco Silva was also asked about the yellow card he received from referee Cláudio Pereira and ended up responding in an ironic tone.
“Everything I felt, I keep it to myself, I’ll keep it to myself. I’ve already talked about some issues in a flash. The referee thought that I, perhaps, protested too much or did something that he wasn’t happy with and gave me a yellow card. That’s all it is,” he said.
Regarding what happened on the pitch over the 90 minutes, in which Benfica had to stage a comeback to leave the Azores with a victory, Marco Silva admitted that the team started the match poorly, but congratulated the players for being able to react in the second half, also highlighting the support of the fans.
“Above all, a better second half. Take the opportunity to congratulate the players on three very important points for us, after a difficult first half, in which we were not at our level. Congratulations also to the fans. Even at a difficult time and in a difficult first half for our team, the support was constant and they had the patience that is important to have in these moments too”, concluded the Benfica coach.
