XI changes, Rui Costa and frustration: Marco Silva before Hearts v Benfica | OneFootball

He was at the press conference previewing Benfica's game this Thursday against Hearts, in Scotland, for the second leg of the Europa League third qualifying round, after the 6-1 win in the first match. Check out everything the Reds' coach said ahead of the European clash.

A different game from the first leg

"Every game is different. No matter how good our performance and result were, if we played again the next day it would be different. Tomorrow will be different too, with a different story, and we want it to have the same kind of result for us, which is victory. That is our objective here. We have a result that gives us confidence to approach this match in a very positive way, but we cannot become complacent. That would be the first step toward making mistakes, and we do not want to make mistakes. The objective is to be in the playoff, but it is different to achieve that with two good results rather than just one. The goal is to do everything to win. We have some players who need to compete and build the dynamics we want. Tomorrow's game is good for that. We will have some players in the starting eleven who have not started for some time. It is important to understand how they react in match conditions. There is nothing better than seeing some players start the game and show the quality they have"

Who could be in the starting eleven and in goal

"I am not going to name any outfield players, nor even the goalkeeper. You will see tomorrow. But yes, it is an opportunity. It is important for us to see players in competition and give them that competition. There are four or five players whose physical work and team dynamics we have been speeding up, but whom we have not really seen in matches, only in spells. Never in a more consistent way or from the start of a game. Tomorrow's match is suited to that. There will be some changes and they will get that opportunity. But we do not want to neglect the importance of the game just because we are making those changes"

Rui Costa on the transfer market

"We think the same way, otherwise one of us would not be saying one thing and the other something else. What we think stays between us, and we communicate with you in the way we think is best. The players will arrive when we manage to make that happen; the market is not just for August or September, but for a whole season, in Benfica's case for even longer, if possible. We will make the best decisions based on what we believe is best for Benfica"

The market and centre-backs

"I am not going to talk about players who are not ours. Tomás and Lenglet are two centre-backs with a lot of quality and we are very happy with them. As for the players you mentioned and the profile, I am not going to talk about the type of centre-back we do or do not want. There has been a lot of talk about the centre-back Benfica need, and you already know the answer"

Motivating the team after the 6-1

"We have already talked, yes, and tomorrow, naturally, with greater emphasis on what we want and, above all, on how we motivate ourselves. I know it is normal for you to hear this, but it is the reality. When we wear the Benfica shirt, when we are at this level of responsibility and stature, motivation has to come naturally. I usually tell the players, not only about matches, that the motivation, intensity and concentration with which we want to play comes a lot from training. I am one of those who strongly believes that those who train well usually end up playing well, and those who truly focus on the daily work are much closer to seeing good things happen during the game. That is the way I think. Motivation and standards are set every day in training so that they come naturally in the game. The scoreline was very emphatic and is a sign that we did things very well in the first game. If we did them very well, we are capable of doing them again in a different environment, much more in favour of the home team. It is a challenge for the players, and tomorrow they will hear that too. It will be our second official away game. The first did not go as we wanted. Tomorrow's challenge is to put that right, by looking at ourselves, at what Benfica is, and starting to take steps forward"

Draw with Académico de Viseu

"The frustration was enormous, as you can imagine. I believe the players you had the chance to speak to after the game, and me as well... there is no way to hide it. Very often our expression and our face speak for us. I am a bit like that, which is why that huge frustration was there at the end of the game... We are not here for moral victories, for playing well and then not getting what we want; that is not part of our DNA, that is not what we want. We want, if possible, to win and play well. That is the identity we want for Benfica, a style of play that allows us to enjoy ourselves and for those watching our team to recognize that it is Benfica playing. We are not here for moral victories, because they will not be enough at the end of the season, so the frustration was enormous. We drew, but we played well... we did everything to win and we should have won that game, so there was huge frustration at the end. There is no need to create more or less anxiety; we have to channel all that frustration into what is our group, our dressing room, and bring it all out tomorrow, which is another football match for us to play, to grow, and to do everything to win, and above all to be able to improve some aspects from the last game. Once again, we were a team capable of creating many and good goal-scoring chances, with a clear idea of what we wanted for our game on the ball. Then it is about maintaining focus. It is not that we gave the opponent much in terms of our defensive action, but in two or three moments when we were not as strong as we should have been, the opponent ended up punishing us... In football, you have to maintain levels of concentration, aggression and intensity for the full 95 minutes. That is our objective: to maintain greater consistency in our actions, both collective and individual, in the game"

Challenges in the first two months at Benfica

"There is still a long way to go. It is humanly impossible to have everything at the level we want two months after being introduced, with seven weeks of work, and those same seven weeks with a large part of the players arriving little by little, especially the players who were at the World Cup and who, as you also know, were almost always starters last season. We are talking about 50 to 60% of Benfica's starting eleven from last season. I am not going to list the things that pleased me or did not. I already see a lot of good things in what we want and intend for the team. The players feel that too, and that is the most important thing; that feeling is what ends up being the hardest and most important thing in a football team. The idea we want to, in quotation marks, sell to the players, and for them to buy into it and clearly want to follow it. That is what I feel the players want to do more and more, and they have the sense that this path will lead them to very good things, helping them improve individually and collectively. Starting to compete after four weeks of work is not very normal, with many players away as well. All those details were challenging for us in getting the team ready to compete at the highest level in those first Europa League games. For us, being at this stage right now was almost mandatory. Reaching the group stage is a clear ambition that we have. Normally we are not used to playing in this competition and we usually end up in a competition that, in recent years, has not been the normal one for Benfica"

Positions that need reinforcements

"I am not going to talk about positions. The club and I have already said that there will be departures and arrivals until the end of August. We would like to have control over the market, but not everything happens the way we want. Our ambition is to try to improve our strengths. The structure is working with me so that things happen"

Solidifying ideas or experimenting?

"As I said a moment ago, it will be our second official away game. We played St. Gallen away, and the performance and result were not what we wanted, but the response in the following home games was good. Good performances and goals, that was very important. Now the objective away from home is to give a different response, to show ourselves as the big team we are not only at the Estádio da Luz, but also away from home. I want to see that challenge in the team. And it will allow us to see some players"

What he expects from Hearts

"It will be a game with a different atmosphere. The result of the first game does not matter; it will be a difficult atmosphere. We will wait until tomorrow to see the changes, and some players will get some opportunities. That is important for us. But at the end of the day, this is Benfica. It does not matter who plays, and we will fight to win. As for Hearts, they will want to react. The gap is big, but they will certainly want to show strength in front of their fans, and Benfica will have to be alert. They will want to respond, and we have to control that situation. We want to make good decisions throughout the game"

Could Dedic leave?

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