Varandas invites Villas-Boas to box, awaits his response | OneFootball

Promise made, promise kept: Frederico Varandas will invite André Villas-Boas to watch the eagerly awaited Classic of the first leg of the Portuguese Cup semi-finals, scheduled for 8:45 PM (Portuguese mainland time) this Tuesday, in the presidential box of the Estádio José Alvalade.

The information was reported this Tuesday by the newspaper A Bola, and it remains to be seen whether the president of FC Porto will accept the invitation from his Sporting counterpart, following the verbal exchange between them after the match held at Estádio do Dragão on February 9, for the 21st round of the Primeira Liga, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

It should be remembered that, on the eve of that game, there were tense episodes: the Sporting squad was awakened in the early hours by fireworks launched near the hotel where they were staying in Vila Nova de Gaia, and on the pitch, captain Morten Hjulmand was provoked – a shirt of Atlético de Madrid, a club whose interest in signing him had been reported, was even thrown at him, leading to his exclusion from the previous game against Nacional.

During the match at Dragão, Rui Silva was repeatedly interrupted, and the most surreal episode occurred after Seko Fofana's opening goal in the 76th minute, when the ball boys removed all the balls and cones from the field in a clear attempt to stop the flow of the game.

Luis Suárez eventually set the final score with a rebound from a penalty committed by Francisco Moura and initially saved by Diogo Costa, but the controversy continued with accusations from the reigning champions that the rivals had inflated the temperature of the locker room and decorated it with newspaper clippings alluding to past achievements.

The following week, in Alcochete, Frederico Varandas responded to journalists with the following words: “I can only say what I would like and what I control. What I control is that FC Porto will be very well received to do what they do best, compete on the field.”

“The president of FC Porto has the institutional seat, where he has always sat. Secondly, I would like Sporting fans not to do what FC Porto fans do, interrupting sleep. Sporting players don’t want that, we don’t want that. FC Porto will be very well received, just like any team,” he stated.

“I control our actions, those of Sporting. It is not Sporting that comments on appointments before games. It is not Sporting that has these episodes in a game it organizes. It is very hard when things happen, and it is very easy to criticize the president. No, because the problem with Portuguese football lies with the managers,” he continued.

“Management like this doesn’t help, everyone has glass roofs. Gentlemen, have the courage to name names. We are not all the same and no, we don’t do the same,” he concluded.

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