Palhinha, Circati and Aursnes blow: Marco Silva before Aarhus-Benfica | OneFootball

He was at Benfica’s preview press conference this Thursday’s match against Aarhus, in Denmark, for the second leg of the Europa League play-off round, after the 3-1 win in the first meeting. Check out everything the Eagles’ coach said ahead of the European clash.

What he expects from the match

"It is a different scenario, in a very positive tie, after a game that gave us a lot of confidence. The result at home could have been more one-sided. Tactically, we were very good, despite the goal we conceded from a mistake. We expect a strong opponent at the start and we will have to keep performing at a good level."

The signing of João Palhinha

"I did not want to take the focus away from the reason we are here. But it is the return of a Portugal international, a player who was with me for two years, and I understand the narrative that has been created. When we signed João, it was because he fit the profile we were looking for. When we sign a player, it is to improve the team."

Do you have your dream team?

"I’m not going down that road... We are still a long way from having the dream team and there is a lot of work to do. In eight weeks it is very difficult to build a dream team."

Palhinha and Sporting...

"I’m not going to answer that."

And the interest in Ríos?

"I’m not going to talk about that, do you have another one?"

Aursnes injured. Who will replace him?

"I’m not going into that. We still need to assess it."

Positions still needing reinforcement

"I would like to talk about tomorrow’s game and you want to talk about the market... We had a pre-season with many Europa League games. We have many new players still adapting to the new processes. I’m not going to talk about signings on the eve of such an important match."

Circati coming in

"It is not always the centre-back’s fault when goals are conceded. If I knew we would stop conceding goals with Circati, he would definitely come in, but it is not that simple. We gave away very few chances in the last game. One mistake does not take away from a very good performance in terms of defensive organisation. So if you want to know the defence or the goalkeeper, you will have to wait until tomorrow."

Aursnes

"He is a very important player, even in terms of helping his teammates, but this stop-start spell has not been positive for us. It would be another important moment to understand whether we integrate him into one of two positions. That will not be possible, but I do not think it is anything serious."

What he expects from Aarhus

"We expect a very difficult game. They will try to make an impact on us right from the start. They should press more; at the start of the first game they tried to. We expect stronger pressure in the first phase of our build-up. They have a lot of possession in their league, but we will have to impose our game."

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