João Brandão downbeat after loss to Feirense: “A draw would have been fair” | OneFootball

FC Porto B returned from Santa Maria da Feira without points, having lost by a narrow margin against the local team in the 18th round of the Segunda Liga. In the aftermath of the match, João Brandão stated that the team did enough to “deserve a different result,” noted that there was a lack of “better definition,” mentioned that a draw “would have been more than fair,” and expressed “great satisfaction in seeing the growth” of the young players who participated.

“We really wanted to win, we really didn’t want to lose; in this club, we thrive on victories and achievements, and the growth of these young players must be built on victories, because to be an FC Porto player, you must have a constant thirst for victories,” declared the Porto coach after the match held at Estádio Marcolino Castro.

Unfair result “It hurts, but in football, justice is what it is. We worked and played to deserve a different result. We started strong in the game, then, from the moment they began to close in with their full-backs, we managed to have some second-line movements and reach the final third, the decision-making zone, but there we never managed to have the best definition and didn’t translate that into clear goal opportunities. In the second half, we managed to do just that, more second-line movement and better definition. That’s how we managed to score the goal, with Melnichenka’s movement, and then, in the end, I think it would have been more than fair to have taken a point from here, hence the importance of continuing the work and believing in what we are building.”

Competitive Segunda Liga “We know that in this Segunda Liga, the effectiveness of opposing teams is tremendous, especially in counter-attacks, crosses, and set-pieces. These are three moments that opponents always have very present in this highly competitive championship. At halftime, I asked the team to remain defensively balanced and to maintain a rhythm and offensive volume that would allow us to have more arrivals. From there, we lacked the best definition; we had some moments of transition where, with positional rather than numerical advantage, we should have defined well and translated that into shots on goal. And, fundamentally, we also looked at our pressing moment. Feirense never managed to have the paused game they like to have in the first phase of construction; we managed to interpret that, and it’s a sign of growth for these young players. We finished with a midfield trio, all of junior age, two of them first-year juniors. That is the purpose of the B team; we want to continue growing and have consistency. Consistency in daily work so that, on the weekend, we can translate that into points.”

First defeat of 2026 “In football, the result is clearly the main beam, but not only. We look at the team and see that it is growing, both individually and collectively. It is a great satisfaction to see this growth, for all the work they have done during the week, and that is what we must invest in. The purpose of the B team is much more than winning games. Winning games is fundamental to staying in the Segunda Liga because it is the ideal context to develop our young players, but we also have to look at their growth. The adaptation of (Mateus) Mide, (Bernardo) Lima, and Tiago (Silva) to a more aggressive context, to a much more intense game, with more second balls, is what contributes to the growth of these young players. We really wanted to win, we really didn’t want to lose; in this club, we thrive on victories and achievements, and the growth of these young players must be built on victories, because to be an FC Porto player, you must have a constant thirst for victories.”

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