João Brandão: "Someone stepped in who shouldn't have been the main player" | OneFootball

FC Porto B was defeated by Torreense (2-3) in a match marked by “the intervention of an element who should not have been the protagonist.”

After a match “with many incidents,” João Brandão lamented the “unequal criteria” of the refereeing team, which “had a very big influence on the characteristics” of the game and “made it very confusing.” “The players are disappointed and sad, but it’s up to us to show them the good things they did and we must move forward with a lot of resilience,” concluded the Porto coach.

Intervention of the refereeing team“Today it’s difficult to talk about the game without mentioning its incidents. It’s not the first time that we’re ahead and then the referee’s criteria is unequal, and that had an impact on the game. Credit to us in the first half. We played a very competent first half, with good positioning of the block, we interpreted the pressure zones very well, and that’s what we lacked in the second half. Torreense made changes and pushed the team towards our goal, and we needed to be more careful in how we protected the space behind our full-backs. The team reacts, tries, and once again there’s the intervention of an element who should not have been the protagonist.”

“Already in Paços de Ferreira we started very well and then once again we had the intervention of VAR for a long time, which breaks up the game. We know that this has a very big influence on the characteristics of the Second League games. It was a well-played first half, and our reaction to the third goal was also very positive as we tried to push the team towards the opponent’s goal. It was our responsibility to protect certain passes that the opponent was looking for; a throw-in with the ball moving has to be stopped, a natural contact inside the box is not a foul, just as it’s not a foul a minute later outside the box. These are the criteria that made the game very confusing with many incidents. The players are disappointed and sad, but it’s up to us to show them the good things they did and move forward with a lot of resilience.”

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