Benfica boss plays down Champions League spot: It hardly matters... | OneFootball

Benfica is preparing to make its debut in the 2025/26 edition of the Champions League in basketball, in a match with Gran Canaria, in the 1st round of Group H. Norberto Alves, coach of the red team, has already launched the match, and despite throwing the favoritism to the Spaniards, he showed confidence for the competition.

"We are going to have here in Luz one of the great teams of the ACB League of Spain, one of the best and a candidate to win the competition. Just this Sunday, in the game with Real Madrid, they ended up losing by 10 points, but they disputed the game. It is a typical team of what the ACB League is, very physical, fast, likes to run and is very good at defending. Which means that from our perspective it is essential to try to play our game, our model is based on a fast game", Norberto Alves began to explain.

The red coach continued: "There is a decisive aspect which is the fight of the boards, despite their three players over 2 meters. At this level we have to be very physical in defense, matching or surpassing the opponent's aggressiveness. We will try to score in the first seconds of the attack, be very collective. In terms of philosophy and despite the new players who arrived, we have not changed anything".

"No one has any doubt about the favoritism of Gran Canaria, but we don't care, we just have to play our game, try to be very solid, even among players who still don't know each other well, because they have been together for a relatively short time. They will have to give everything on the field, in the 40 minutes, and if it goes to overtime, let it be 5 more minutes", he said next, throwing the favoritism to the Spaniards.

He concluded with a word for the red reinforcements: "We have new players, no doubt. The first impression we have, confirms what we talked about when we recruited them and tried to gather as much information as possible. They are people with a lot of character, very hardworking. They need some time to learn to play better with each other, which is normal".

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.