Pepê on Thiago Silva’s arrival: “I felt like I was joining Porto” | OneFootball

After completing their training camp in the Algarve, FC Porto has already headed back to Invicta to begin the final phase of preparation for the classic against Benfica – the Portuguese Cup quarter-final match scheduled for Wednesday at the Dragão (8:45 PM). In an interview with ‘Jornal de Notícias’, Pepê admitted that the team is expecting a tough match against their red rivals.

“We know it’s going to be a very difficult, very tight game, and since it’s a knockout quarter-final, we have no doubt that we need to be at our best for the full 90 minutes. I think this training camp was also important so we could improve on a lot of things we were struggling with,” he said, also commenting on Farioli’s squad reinforcements. “I didn’t know Thiago Silva personally, and when I spoke to him for the first time, I even joked: it felt like I was the one arriving at FC Porto because of how nervous I was, given the presence he has. Besides the footballing qualities everyone knows, he’s a leader (…). We can only benefit from having him in the squad, because he brings even more experience to the team. [About Oscar Pietuszewski] We can see he’s a very cheerful, spontaneous kid. I have no doubt he has huge potential, he’s going to develop a lot, and soon he’ll be another one to help us.”

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