Crespo: São Paulo better than LDU, rues exit, explains Oscar absence | OneFootball

Crespo was satisfied with São Paulo’s volume of play this Thursday, in the 1-0 defeat to LDU, in a packed Morumbis, in the second leg of the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores.

The Argentine coach believes his team was superior to LDU in both matches but ended up unable to turn that dominance into goals. On the other side, the Ecuadorians had the efficiency that Tricolor couldn’t find over the 180 minutes.

“The only way out of a difficult situation, of a lot of pain, is to work, believe, and keep going. I think in football, many times you get what you deserve, but often 2 + 2 is 7. In this phase with LDU, 2 + 2 was 7. We didn’t deserve to lose there, and we lost. Here, in the first half we created a lot, we could have reduced their advantage, they came just once and scored. The team produced a lot with tactical variations. We used all the firepower we had, with all the difficulties we’ve been facing lately—just in the last 24 hours we lost Ferraresi and Marcos Antônio—but even with all these difficulties, the team persevered, created, produced, but lately has been finishing little. At one point it was working, now it’s not,” commented Crespo.

This Thursday, Lucas Moura started on the bench and, after making a huge effort to be available, was brought on in the second half even though he was far from his ideal physical condition. Oscar, on the other hand, was left out of the match, even though he had trained for days in recent weeks, and Crespo explained why the midfielder wasn’t even on the bench.

“Since Oscar had this injury, he hasn’t been able to play until today. We’ll see. I hope maybe, by a miracle, before the FIFA break [he’ll be available], if not, then after. He’s barely trained. We can’t include him. He walks, but feels pain. I have to thank Luiz Gustavo, Lucas Moura, Oscar, for the effort they’re making to come back. Luiz Gustavo could play, we already had an agreement with Lucas Moura, he’s also not 100%, not even close to 50%, and he made such an effort to get here. That’s the situation. We have to stay calm, it’s not easy, it’s a night of a lot of pain, because at the end of the day the group gave everything on the field. It didn’t work out, we didn’t finish everything we created. With all the difficulties the group faces day by day, we try to do our best. Many times we succeed, others we don’t. Normally, football puts things in their place over time. Football isn’t math, many times 2 + 2 equals 7,” he continued.

After the 2-0 defeat in the first leg, at the altitude of Quito, Crespo guaranteed that São Paulo would win the return match at Morumbis. The confidence in qualifying for the Libertadores semifinal seemed unshakeable, but it didn’t happen. Now, the focus shifts back to the Brazilian Championship to try, who knows, to qualify for the next edition of the South American tournament.

“I believed, because I saw. We had many chances, did we deserve to lose the game in Quito? No. Did we deserve to lose the game here? We played well, we can play better, but with what we did, we didn’t deserve to lose today. I thought we could go through and in fact we hit the post, had chances, tried to finish. I can’t control the fans’ or the board’s reaction. The fans feel pain just like us. What can we do? Look ahead, try to gather strength as quickly as possible because on Monday we have another game. The difficulties haven’t ended. We have to try to build a new opportunity for next year, which is already a lot compared to three months ago. Back then, all anyone talked about was relegation. We have to believe. Is it difficult? Very, because the pain is great,” Crespo concluded.

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