Sporting stalwart on Santa Clara protests: Doubts over Maxi’s red card | OneFootball

Rui Borges, Sporting’s coach, said he has no doubt that the Lions’ victory (2-1) over Santa Clara leaves no room for dispute. The coach avoided commenting on the play that led to the second goal for the Alvalade club and stated he had doubts about the sending off of Maxi Araújo.

"I didn’t even see the play, but I’m not going to justify a victory with a moment like that; otherwise, we’d have to talk about countless plays throughout the match. I have doubts about Maxi’s sending off. To talk about that is to diminish a victory that is deserved. I’m not going down that path. There were more debatable moments throughout the match. I’m not going to get into refereeing issues," he began, referring to the dangerous plays created by the islanders.

"In 90 minutes, we couldn’t completely neutralize the opponent. Those are the two chances they had: the first after a slip by Diomande, which is something we can’t control, and the second due to a bit of defensive inattention. That’s natural, since we were searching for a goal, the team was more committed to the offensive process and was more exposed", he assessed.

Rui Borges acknowledges the poor start to the match: "Maybe we weren’t as focused in the first five minutes and conceded a goal, but the team maintained great emotional balance and deserves a lot of credit for the victory it achieved, giving yet another real demonstration of what our collective is all about," he concluded.

The green and white team will only return to the field on Saturday, November 22, against Marinhense. The match, counting for the fourth round of the Portuguese Cup, against the side led by Rui Sacramento, will be played at 6:00 p.m. in Alvalade.

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