Everything José Mourinho said ahead of Tondela v Benfica | OneFootball

José Mourinho has already launched the match against Tondela. A day after returning to training following the victory against Real Madrid, the Benfica coach previewed the match for the 20th round of the Liga Portugal Betclic, in which he analyzed the current state of the squad and what he expects to see in the Beirões' stronghold.

First words: "The day after [the Real Madrid game] was free, the players hadn't had a day off in a long time. It was important to 'end' that game, so to speak. We had another day to think, to relive, so to speak. And to put it in the drawer. And now, obviously little time to work, but the three days between games is what we consider the minimum ideal to respond well. And now we have this game with Tondela, which will surely be under difficult conditions, difficult weather conditions, possibly the field won't be great either. But it has to be, we have to go. And I take this opportunity. Obviously, our solidarity is with those whose weather conditions don't prevent them from playing well, but rather from living in minimal conditions. To all these people, our embrace."

Benfica and Tondela are experiencing completely different moments. What opponent do you expect? "An opponent that will fight for their goals, just as we will fight for ours. They are in a difficult situation, but one they know well. The teams that are promoted to the 1st League usually, in the first year after being promoted, always have difficult seasons, where they will fight until the last games for permanence. I think this is Tondela. But we saw the games Tondela played, especially at home and recently against Sp. Braga, where they could have easily won. They had the misfortune of not scoring a penalty a few minutes before the end that would have brought them very close to 3 points. They will certainly be competitive and, of course, they deserve all our respect."

Comment on the Champions League draw result, reunion with Real Madrid: "We only had two possibilities, either Real or Inter. We didn't have much choice. We got the king. The other day, when a Real player offered me the shirt after the game, I jokingly showed my colleagues the symbol they had on their arm. It's 15... They are the king. With everything that means. It's not just history. We are going to play against, surely, the biggest contender to win the competition. But we have three games before, Tondela, Santa Clara, and Alverca, and that's what we have to focus on. But to end the game we played and with Real, there was only one thing I wanted to say: what Courtois did with Trubin is out of this world. In those galas that are held at the end of the seasons, the fair play award is already given. I would risk saying that, within the sadness of the defeat, he found a few seconds to be happy for his colleague who did something out of this world. Within a space-time where we only thought about ourselves, it seemed like we were completely isolated from the world, I didn't have time to realize what Courtois did. It doesn't surprise me because he was my player. He is the best goalkeeper in the world and, with this attitude, he demonstrated that he will go down in Champions history as a great, whatever happens. What he did is incredible."

It is worth remembering that Benfica, currently in third place in the championship with 45 points, will visit the penultimate classified's ground, aiming to equal Sporting and shorten the distance to Porto. The match is scheduled for this Sunday, February 1st, at 8:30 PM, with Luís Godinho officiating.

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