Bernardo Ribeiro defends divisive Benfica player: not to blame | OneFootball

Samuel Soares started in Benfica's defeat to Porto (3-1) on matchday seven of the Liga Portugal Betclic. The young Portuguese goalkeeper came off badly in the first goal of the clássico, but Bernardo Ribeiro argues that the keeper was not responsible for the defeat.

"Samuel Soares had nothing to do with Benfica's defeat. In fact, Diogo Costa was more at fault for Benfica's goal than young Samuel was for Porto's three," he wrote plainly in his opinion piece published in Record newspaper.

The director of the same media outlet admits that Miguel Nogueira's refereeing was not among the best. "It was not a great refereeing performance. I would say it was less bad, but with dubious disciplinary criteria," he said in his analysis.

Bernardo Ribeiro also took the opportunity to defend Rui Costa's remarks - which have been the target of criticism. "Rui Costa's reaction was not weak. You may not like it because he was polite and truthful in what he said, which I even understand because I see a lot of people wanting louts in power. But I am sorry that everyone is looking for a new Pinto da Costa. It says a lot about us as a people," he concluded.

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