António Silva recalls Portugal row: “If Pepe erred, I’d be blamed” | OneFootball

António Silva feels he has become a prime target for criticism. The Benfica defender even speaks of “persecution,” arguing that the idea has been created that “it’s António’s fault” and lamenting how his mistakes have been blown out of proportion ever since he joined the Eagles’ first team. Even so, there is one episode while on duty with the National Team that the centre-back has not forgotten, as he revealed in an interview on João Oliveira’s YouTube channel, known online as ‘JOliveira10’.

“I don’t like to play the victim,” he began. “But I do think there is a persecution. There’s this ‘it’s António’s fault,’” he said, before shifting the focus to what he can “control”: “I know I do my job well. I’m the first to arrive at the training centre, the first to go to the gym, the first to have breakfast, the first to go to physio. It’s my life, it’s what I love, and that’s what I can control.”

“From that point on, things took on huge proportions that, in my opinion, make no sense. I was 19 or 20 years old, and if anything it should have been a bit the other way around. They should have supported a Portuguese player representing Benfica and the National Team. It would have been good for the National Team, for the country, to support him instead of constantly hammering him,” said the defender, referring to Georgia vs Portugal at Euro 2024.

António Silva even considers the episode involving the National Team to have been “clearly exaggerated.” The defender compared the situation with mistakes made by other centre-backs, including Pepe, who slipped against Slovenia and almost allowed the opposition to score, in a match that ended with a 3-0 Portuguese win on penalties. “In that same tournament [Euro 2024], Pepe made a mistake that was perfectly normal, one that didn’t lead to a goal, but if it had, they wouldn’t have done the same thing they do with me, because Pepe is Pepe. It’s incomparable. But I’m only saying that in the same way I made a mistake at 20, Pepe made one at 41. I’ll make mistakes when I’m 30 or 35. Nico [Otamendi] does it too, Tomás [Araújo] does it too — making mistakes is part of our position. And it’s normal for centre-backs to make mistakes over the course of the season, because otherwise there wouldn’t be any goals either. It’s part of football,” he reflected.

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