Gonçalo Feio: “Competitiveness is a core principle in football and sport” | OneFootball

Tondela’s coach said on Saturday that focus in performance is one of the keys his team will have to combine with belief and competitiveness to face FC Porto in the 30th round of the Primeira Liga.

“We are going to compete believing in the weapons we have, knowing that the team believes in the game plan. By following the game plan, each of our players will be closer to reaching their potential and, if that happens, we will get closer to the result we want,” Gonçalo Feio said.

The Tondela manager was speaking at a press conference previewing Sunday’s match at 20:30 at the Estádio do Dragão, away to FC Porto, a game he described as “maximum difficulty, against a great team,” the league leaders.

“Tondela have to leave on the pitch an image that makes the fans, the region, the city and the club proud of us, and compete for the points at stake, knowing how difficult it is,” Gonçalo Feio acknowledged.

The coach added that this match also represents “another step toward the mission and growth within” the way Tondela intend to approach the game in the future.

Tondela travel to the Estádio do Dragão at 20:30 on Sunday for the 30th round, after a positive week of work, according to the “auriverde” coach, at a time when the team must “prepare to fulfill the final mission” of staying in the Primeira Liga and, this time, away to “a very, very big rival,” but with the aim of “connecting with the fans.”

In a match in which, “obviously, FC Porto are the favorites,” he nevertheless pointed out that this is football and that “one of the basic principles of sport is to compete, with all humility in recognizing the merit, ability, quality and favoritism” of the opponent, “but with the basic principle of competing.”

“If the team knows how to behave in the different moments and phases of the game, we are closer to a collective performance that helps the players bring out their individual characteristics and qualities,” he argued.

Gonçalo Feio also said that the team work “very hard every day to respond in the most beautiful and important moments in football, which are the matches,” and that the trip to FC Porto’s ground will be made “with great respect for the opponent.”

“But also with belief, mentally, and I saw that in the last game and in training, which gives my team confidence. I don’t call that arrogance, but competitiveness, which for me is one of the basic and main principles of being not only in football but in sport,” he said.

Tondela, 17th and second from bottom, with 21 points and still with a game in hand from the 26th round, travel to leaders FC Porto, who have 76, on Sunday at 20:30, in a match refereed by Cláudio Pereira, from the Aveiro association.

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