THE Coach Franclim Carvalho said today that he wanted Sporting de Braga to “decide as soon as possible” the game at the Danish side of Aarhus, on Thursday, in the third round of the Football Conference League.
The Minho coach stressed that the idea “always involves trying to decide the game as quickly as possible”, especially due to the “high competitive density” that Sporting de Braga has had.
“We haven’t had the space to physically manage the players during the matches and we have almost always been chasing the result, with the exception of the game against Gent. That will be the objective, to resolve it as soon as possible. We will have to be very intelligent in managing the match, because the opponent plays a decisive card, they only have one point out of a possible six and, if they lose, they are in a complicated situation. We have to play with that, but we want the three points, which are very important for us”, he said at the preview press conference, already in Denmark.
Aarhus only has that point in the Conference League, but Franclim Carvalho recalled that the opponent “was reduced to 10 units after three minutes (against Egnatia) and still drew (1-1), and that against Gent they lost towards the end”.
“I saw about four games and I know them well. They were champions last season, they have a very strong idea, they have the same coach and they have had few changes to the squad”, he praised.
Aarhus has already faced Benfica in the play-off to access the Europa League, having lost both games with the ‘eagles’ by 3-1, matches that Franclim Carvalho said he had envisioned.
“But, it was a different moment in the season. It was a play-off, now it’s the main phase. We are Sporting de Braga, we have our responsibility and tomorrow (Thursday) we have to live up to that responsibility and that is winning”, he said.
The Braga team returned to winning ways, against Famalicão (3-0), on Sunday, in the 10th round of the I League, and the coach praised the performance.
“We played a very consistent 90 minutes, that was the main aspect I took away from the match. I want the team to attack a lot, to shoot a lot and to score goals, but what pleased me most was the defensive consistency, and we managed to achieve it”, he said.
Franclim Carvalho stressed, however, that “the structure of Aarhus is quite different, with three plants: I hope we can continue what we are building. There is a lot to improve, I still have little time working here, but we know the path we want to take”, he said.
Sporting de Braga, 16th placed, with three points, and Aarhus, 26th, with one, will face each other at 5:45 pm on Thursday, at Cepheus Park, in Randers, a game that will be refereed by the German Florian Badstübner.
