Gonçalo Brandão unfazed by Benfica ahead of Arouca clash | OneFootball

The Casa Pia coach made a point of highlighting the "great opportunity" that the match against Benfica represents, despite being aware of the scale of the challenge ahead. Gonçalo Brandão will make his debut as head coach of the Gansos, and he previewed the match in a press conference.

"What we tried to do was treat this week as a normal one and prepare well for the game, which will be difficult. The results haven't been good, but we have to keep going and focus on improving that situation. It was more about recovering emotionally after a defeat that was not good, but also making it clear that it's a new week, a new opportunity, and there will be a new game for us to show what we're made of," the new Casa Pia coach began by explaining.

Gonçalo Brandão continued: "We had to work on a bit of everything. In two games we really conceded nine goals, which is never good, but we had to go through all the different phases and we will have to be compact and very supportive of each other. The mentality was already like this before and will continue to be: to try as much as possible to keep a clean sheet."

"They haven't lost in the league yet, and at home they haven't lost in many games, 56 I think [in the league]. It's a team that scores a lot of goals and keeps scoring. For us, in terms of motivation, it's a bit easier to work on these games, because it's a match against a big team, in a big, packed stadium. It's a great opportunity to show ourselves, to show that we have value. We have to compete and the final result will be seen in due time. The important thing is to go in with the spirit to compete, respecting the opponent, obviously," said the Casa Pia coach about Benfica.

To finish, Gonçalo Brandão downplayed Benfica's electoral period: "I'll be honest, I didn't even have time... My mind didn't even come close to thinking about Benfica's elections. With or without elections, it's Benfica, a strong team. It's not that the players don't care much, but they're focused on the game. They'll be focused, so will we, and what I want is for the team to play a good game and, above all, to compete and leave a good impression at the Luz."

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