Benfica face five games in 15 days, coach says there's no room for rotation | OneFootball

Ivan Baptista recalled the heavy schedule that Benfica’s women’s football team will have to face over the next two weeks. The coach gave statements to the official media of Clube da Luz, where he previewed the upcoming match for the Eagles, against Braga, one of the toughest rivals in the national calendar.

"Back to work, with the full squad. These breaks for international duty are always challenging, especially for us. We were without 13 players from the main squad, and that naturally affects the preparation for a very important match, a match of a very demanding nature. Only two days before the game were we able to have the full group back together. That requires very meticulous and very careful planning," Ivan Baptista began by saying.

The Benfica coach continued: "We expect a very high-level match, against a team that is willing to play good football, that is also willing to have their moments in the game, and I think that will be good for the spectacle. Two teams that I believe are in a good moment. I see Braga as a team that is on the rise, especially in the league. They have already shown that in the last few rounds they played in November, so I think all the ingredients are here for a great match."

He then spoke about the workload Benfica will be subjected to: "There’s no management to be done. We know very well what our schedule is. We have an extremely demanding December, we’re talking about 5 games in a period of 15 days, until the 21st we’ll have these 5 games for the players who were exposed to 180 minutes in the last 3 days with their national teams. We’re talking about 7 games in 22 days. It’s brutal! It’s a brutal demand for them, and it’s certainly something we have to take into consideration, because we care a lot about the players, we care a lot about how they are able to perform in all the matches, but our focus right now is solely and exclusively on SC Braga."

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