Eduardo Quaresma gets an earful from ex-Idols judge, left red-faced | OneFootball

Sporting lost 2-1 in Naples, in the Champions League. Still reeling from the match, Manuel Moura dos Santos criticized the play of the first goal, stating that Eduardo Quaresma should have stopped the play with a tactical foul.

"With some surprises in the starting eleven, my team was able to control the opponent, not giving them great chances to target our goal. However, in football, without taking some risks, it is very difficult to win. A too cautious Sporting could hardly bring back more than a defeat from Naples. It was a first half dominated by Naples, resulting in a goal when my team had possession, allowing a quick transition by De Bruyne. And I say allowed because the Belgian player left from near his area, covering more than 30 meters without anyone stopping him, allowing him to make the pass for Hojlund's goal," he began by saying to the newspaper O Jogo.

Moura dos Santos explained that the initial goal by the Italians could have easily been avoided: "In a situation like the one described, Eduardo Quaresma had to make a useful foul to prevent the progression of the Neapolitan player. The yellow card would have been a lesser evil, given the outcome of the play. In the second half, with Suárez and Pote on the field, Sporting was frankly better, reaching the equalizer."

Rui Silva is not free from blame, but what was more evident to me was the absence of Diomande in the center of the defense. I have serious doubts that Hojlund would have scored that goal if he had been contesting the play with the Ivorian central defender. Sporting chased the deficit, trying to reach the equalizer, and Hjulmand, at the end of the game, had a header that Milinkovic-Savic stopped with an extraordinary save. We lost a good opportunity to bring back a different result from Naples. After all, the Italian team was not a bogeyman. In a competition like this, you cannot lose these opportunities, because points are worth gold.

To conclude, Moura dos Santos warned the Sporting coach: "And so, it's three games against teams of our equal, and three defeats. Rui Borges will necessarily have to approach these games against high-caliber opponents differently. I hope that today against Braga, the approach will be different, because it is mandatory to win."

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