Rui Borges praises Tondela trio v Sporting, defends players from critics | OneFootball

Sporting defeated Tondela 3-0 in the ninth round of Liga Portugal Betclic. At the end of the match, Rui Borges defended the team from recent criticism and highlighted the current form of Pote, Francisco Trincão, and Morten Hjulmand.

"Pedro Gonçalves has better numbers than last season with fewer games. Trincão is in the best phase of his career, and Morten gave a fantastic response today. They are important players, I won’t deny that. They feel this responsibility and embrace it, which is what sets great players apart. I’m happy to have them on my team," said the green and white coach.

Rui Borges’ Sporting has been criticized in the press, which points to a poor spell for the team. The coach once again defended the squad: "The match against Marseille was important for the players’ confidence. We have a team with several players who have already won everything at Sporting and, at times, there can be some complacency here or there that leads us to not be as dynamic."

"They want to be better and that was clear against Marseille, and if that weren’t the case, they wouldn’t have responded as they did today. We didn’t stop the ball, we were always very dynamic. The challenge is to always be like this, and the image we showed today was the same as in the first matches of the championship. Apart from the game against Braga, the team has given a fantastic response," he stated.

Sporting will be back on the pitch as soon as Tuesday, October 28, against Alverca. The match, counting for the quarter-finals of the Taça da Liga, against the team led by Custódio, will be played at Estádio José Alvalade at 8:30 pm.

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