Everything José Mourinho said ahead of Juventus v Benfica 👀 | OneFootball

launched the match against Juventus, for the Champions League. On the late afternoon of this Tuesday, January 20, the coach of Benfica — who left Henrique Araújo out of the squad — answered journalists' questions in the press room of the Allianz Stadium, in Turin. Check out everything the Special One said.

Is Rafa Silva already secured as a Benfica player? Was it your request? "I don't talk about players from other clubs, you know that for a long time. I think it's the right way to look at things and to protect myself and my club. I only talk about players who are from Benfica. There's nothing to talk about. Final tomorrow? No, it's a final like all others. Looking at the standings and the points usually needed for qualification, obviously Benfica needs points. I can't say if it's three, four, or five, I have no idea. If tomorrow a draw is enough for us, we would have some psychological restraints. But we don't have it. We know who we are playing against and where we are playing. We will try to win the game. Then, we will see what we need to qualify in the last game."

Has the relationship with Luciano Spalletti changed in recent years? "The relationship is not important, but I understand that in Italy and Portugal these kinds of stories are more important than reality. The important thing is the Champions League, Benfica, and Juventus. Spalletti said something very beautiful, that playing against Benfica is like playing against a piece of history. We appreciate those words very much. I think it's already public the relationship I have with Spalletti. The fight, that part of football, was something unimportant that happened here in Italy. He is a coach I like very much and I think that is the most important aspect."

Aursnes, Barreiro, Manu, and Enzo and also... Bruma: "The only thing I will say about tomorrow's team is that Bruma starts on the bench. Even Bruma himself has confessed that he is not at 100% of his potential and is not in condition to play 90 minutes. He will start on the bench, but as he says, if I need him, with his experience and his willingness to help, I will count on him. I take this opportunity to congratulate him because his recovery is truly very good. When he got injured, he got injured in front of me, I as the coach of Fenerbahçe, immediately saw the extent of it and never expected he could return to competition in January. He did a great job with his people, a great job to recover. What he has to do now is to do what he promised me about 10-15 years ago, when he played against me he scored and at the end told me: 'Take me to your team and I will score goals for you'. Now he has the opportunity."

Spalletti...: "I expect quality, a team with a tactical culture, a team that will not wait for the opponent, that wants to be the protagonist of the game. I have never known a Spalletti team that didn't have important players. At Roma, he had important players. Then, when I returned to Italy, he was at Napoli and now he is at Juventus. When a coach is good, he trains the strongest players in the leagues, you can only expect quality. Luciano's teams are very well trained. They have associative, fast football. He is a very good coach."

A coach not very loved by Juventus fans: "I have already played here with Inter, Roma, Manchester United... obviously playing here with Inter Milan is different from everything and that's where our 'love' comes from, from my Inter days. But it's fantastic to play here. I also played against them at the Olimpico, but here is better. It's a modern football stadium, with a very strong atmosphere. It's typical of Juve. Benfica players know what it is to be a player of a big team and with less or more quality, with less or more experience, whoever wears the Benfica jersey knows they have to show up. In our group, when I looked back on the plane, I thought I was the coach of the B team because we have 8 players from the B team with us and that also signifies our difficulties with so many injuries we have. But this is Benfica. We want to reach the last game with the possibility of qualifying. That's what we did against Ajax and Napoli. The goal is to leave tomorrow with the qualification open for the last game."

Would you like to coach Juventus one day? "The only surprise for me is when a coach without history, without work done, has the possibility to coach the biggest clubs in the world. When Milan hires Allegri, when Roma hires Gasperini, it's not a surprise because we are talking about coaches with experience. When the opposite happens, it is indeed a surprise. Of course."

Portugal without European finals for several years. Why does this happen? "This is happening because football at the club level, the economic situation has a very big impact and obviously the economic power is centered in countries that are not Portugal and in clubs that are not Portuguese. If you want a very personal opinion, I think - and I don't want to leave Sp. Braga out of this -, they can reach Europa League finals. And you can see that the last Portuguese finals in European competitions were in the Europa League. The top teams in the Europa League, I consider them favorites to reach the semi-finals or finals. In the Champions League, obviously, it is much more complicated. Just compare the markets that are made, where the most important transfers go, and I don't think I'm wrong if I say that a team winning a European competition outside Spain, England, Germany, Bayern, and poor PSG... Ah, there's Inter and FC Porto. With me, huh?"

Play well and lose or play badly and win? "If you ask me if tomorrow I want to play well or win, I will tell you that I want to win. But, usually, what gives you more chances to win is to play well. Then, you can ask what it means to play good football. It's a topic that causes a lot of amusement in public opinion. People who have never sat on a bench talk about it. But what is fundamental in the end is to win the game. But as I said, between playing well and losing and playing badly and winning, of course, I choose the second. But I don't think it's possible to play badly and win. I don't understand much of that concept."

The way Benfica played against Rio Ave, with some changes, is that closer to what you want for the near future? "Don't tell me that during a week, with so many programs and specialists, they didn't debate that enough. I know there were elections for the Presidency of the Republic and there was a break. But it is debated so much, so much, so much that I don't think there is a need to explain much. Benfica had already been playing some good games, had already been playing well, in your concept, for many games. If you look at the positioning maps of Sudakov, who you talked about so much, it doesn't vary much from game to game, from the games where he played more as a reference 10 or from the wing. His areas of action are practically the same. But there is also something fundamental, we seek an identity, according to the players we have at our disposal, but, with all due respect to Rio Ave, which is a good team, but Juventus is Juventus and as much as we can try to play a game like we did against Rio Ave against Juventus, it will surely be very difficult to achieve."

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