After Ajax v Benfica, Mourinho on Sérgio Conceição and Bruno Lage | OneFootball

Ajax – Benfica ended with the victory of the Eagles, 2-0, with goals from Samuel Dahl and Leandro Barreiro. At the end of the match, José Mourinho clarified the 'scolding' he gave the players after the match against Atlético and used some recent statements by Sérgio Conceição as an example.

“A simple intervention by a coach at halftime, which the coach then has no problem bringing into the public domain, was a seven-headed beast. I read a great Portuguese coach, Sérgio Conceição, saying about his players and regarding the game they had in the Asian Champions League, where he says: ‘I am 52 years old and at this pace, I could also play’. Where is the drama?”, began by stating José Mourinho.

“As a father, I am not always nice to my children and my children are my children, these are not my children, but they are my players. After 25 years sitting on the bench and after 1200 and something halftime talks, give me the credit to obviously make mistakes, but also to think that sometimes I can do things well,” added José Mourinho.

“I think the impact was positive because the team was serious. Some played better, some had a greater influence on the game, and some had less influence on the game, but they fulfilled, they were supportive when the game went in the direction we did not want,” said José Mourinho.

Finally, about Benfica's chances of securing a place in the next phase, José Mourinho indirectly ‘blamed’ Bruno Lage: “I think the drama of the situation is the defeat to Qarabag. Because if we imagined the three points with Qarabag, with today's three points, it would be six, we would need three points in three games, and our situation would be fantastic. I think we need nine or 10 points. It's difficult, but we are alive. The team was not perfect, but it did well.”

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