Sporting boss looks ahead to Frankfurt clash: We have to do the club proud | OneFootball

The Sporting junior team is ready to face Eintracht Frankfurt in the Youth League round of 16, and ahead of the match that will take place on German soil, coach João Gião shared his confident strategy for the challenge, making it clear that he expects the team to perform at a high level to overcome the German rival.

"It’s an extremely difficult match, with a tough opponent, at their home, and to be among the best eight [teams] will require us to be at our best. Eintracht is a team full of very high-level players, especially up front, namely Alexander Staff, a reference striker for the German national team, and Marvin Dills, who is with the United States national team. These are players who have already played for the first team and even in the Champions League. A very interesting challenge awaits us", said Gião, in statements to the Club’s media.

Furthermore, the young lions’ coach recalled the German mentality before the trip to Frankfurt. "They have German DNA because they play very offensively, in a fast-paced, vertiginous way, accelerating the game a lot. The first pass is always forward, lots of transitions, they really break up the game and it’s natural that, because of this, there are a lot of goals in their matches. The overwhelming majority [are] in offensive transitions and they come in very strong", he emphasized.

In conclusion, João Gião recalled the previous knockout match against Puskás Akadémia in Hungary, using that 2-1 victory as an example for the match against Eintracht: "With the ball we weren’t as fluid, we missed many connections and didn’t always reach the final third in the best conditions. We have to represent Sporting well, go into every match with the right mentality to win, take control of the game, always, but without losing focus on developing and enhancing players individually, even if the performance isn’t optimal yet because they are younger."

It should be noted that the Sporting junior team - which recently triumphed - will face Eintracht Frankfurt this Tuesday at 3:00 pm at the Riederwald Stadium. The winner of the match will advance to the Youth League quarter-finals, where they will face the winner of Real Madrid vs. Chelsea.

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