Dias Ferreira backs Borges, slams Sporting players: Looked like training | OneFootball

Sporting’s defeat to Torreense in the Portuguese Cup final continues to spark strong reactions among the Lions’ supporters, and Dias Ferreira did not spare the players from criticism over their performance at Jamor. The former Sporting official considered that the main people responsible for the setback against the Torres Vedras side were the players themselves from Rui Borges’ squad.

“The president didn’t play, nor did the coach. The main ones to blame for the defeat were the players,” he began by saying, in comments to the newspaper Record, while also harshly criticizing the team’s competitive attitude: “There was a lack of focus and it looked like they didn’t even try to play. On top of that, being a cup final, there was a lack of competitive attitude,” he stressed.

The former official was present at the National Stadium and admitted he was surprised by the way the Lions approached the match. “Sporting played very badly. Not to say they didn’t play at all. It looked more like a training session than anything else. On the other side, we saw a Torreense team full of fighting spirit that did what it had to do to deserve the win,” he said.

Despite the criticism surrounding Rui Borges after the final whistle, Dias Ferreira came to the Sporting coach’s defense and considered the contract renewal approved by the SAD led by Frederico Varandas to be the right decision: “A coach who finishes second in the league, who gets the same number of points as last year, who did what he did in the Champions League... I don’t see him as the problem,” he said, adding that Rui Borges’ future should not depend on the result of the cup final.

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