Rui Borges knocked out, but Sporting boss offers message of hope | OneFootball

Rui Borges analyzed the defeat against Vitória de Guimarães (2-1) and the consequent elimination from the League Cup. The coach lamented the elimination of the green and white emblem, but believes that the Alvalade Club will still find a lot of happiness until the end of the current sports season.

"We will try to fight for everything that is still possible, the Portuguese Cup and the championship. There is still a long way to go, many points at stake, and we have to have an even better second half of the season than the first. Those ahead are having an extraordinary championship. We are focused and concentrated on what we want. We really want to reach the Portuguese Cup final, just as we wanted to reach this one, but we have to give credit to the opponent, who always believed."

The coach justified the defeat: "We lost some rebounds, some balls, and it’s clear that collectively we don’t have as much energy and, here and there, we weren’t as competent in some moments. It’s natural that the fans are not happy, because this Club always wants to be fighting for titles and today we couldn’t do that. The sadness is theirs and ours."

Rui Borges denies that his players lacked attitude: "No, no, not at all. We could have made it 2-0 and didn’t, just like against Gil Vicente. We just have to understand how to better control the final stages of matches, even with this accumulated fatigue."

Regarding the tactical changes after the injury to Fotis Ioannidis, the coach explained: "Each player’s individual ability is different. We put Francisco Trincão inside, a left-footer, and put a right-footer playing wide, which is not our usual habit, but Alisson gives us one-on-one down the flank. Maybe we missed the depth that Fotis gives us, because Trincão is a support player, but tactically nothing changed, only what each one brings to the team."

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