Crespo backs São Paulo comeback in Copa Sul-Americana: “We’re still alive” | OneFootball

Coach Hernán Crespo didn't let the ball drop after São Paulo's 2-0 defeat to LDU in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals, this Thursday (18), away from home.

In his press conference after the match, the Argentine coach highlighted that he found the final score unfair and made sure to show confidence in Tricolor's qualification next week, at Morumbi, when the club will need to overturn a two-goal disadvantage to, at least, take the match to penalties.

"São Paulo is alive. The score is important for them, but São Paulo is alive because it played well. We need to score the goals. With the way São Paulo faced this game, it's to believe. We need the fan to support, we have to do something historic. We have to reverse this negative situation," he said.

The chances created and the way his team played make Crespo believe that São Paulo did not deserve the result it had in Quito. Tricolor had more ball possession (54% against 46%) and shot more (11 against eight), but lost.

"Of course we didn't deserve this result. I think it was an unfair score. But what I think is not important. The score was this and I have to accept it. It gives me peace of mind to know that we created goal chances, some occasions. We couldn't convert into a goal, it's part of it, but we believe, we know that the knockout is like this, and the next 90 minutes we play at Morumbi," he added.

The coach also made sure to praise the performance of the opposing goalkeeper, who he said was largely responsible for the result.

"Credit to LDU, who took advantage of our mistakes. LDU had an important result. They scored the goals we didn't. We didn't materialize what we created, and that's the difference. I hope to reverse it, we have enough weapons for that. It won't be easy, but we have to believe. We had responses, it's not easy to play as São Paulo played here, so LDU had a good night and the goalkeeper too. I hope he doesn't have it next week," he concluded.

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