Manuel Moura dos Santos scolds Sporting player, targets Rui Borges | OneFootball

Manuel Moura dos Santos was somewhat disturbed by Sporting's defeat in Naples (2-1). The green and white fan believes that, with a different approach, the lions could have left Italy with some points and targets Rui Borges for the importance of winning against Braga.

"With some surprises in the starting eleven, my team was able to control the opponent, not giving them many chances to aim at our goal. It happens that in football without taking some risk it is very difficult to win. A too cautious Sporting could hardly bring more than a defeat from Naples. It was a first half of Neapolitan dominance, resulting in a goal when my team had possession of the ball, allowing a quick transition from De Bruyne. And I say allowed, because the Belgian player left from near his area, covering more than 30 meters without anyone stopping him, allowing him to make the pass for Hojlund's goal", he began to say, to the newspaper O Jogo.

Moura dos Santos explained that the Italians' initial goal could easily have been avoided: "In a situation like the one described, Eduardo Quaresma should have committed a useful foul that would stop the progression of the Neapolitan player. The yellow card would have been a lesser evil, given the outcome of the play. In the second half, with Suárez and Pote on the field, Sporting was frankly better, reaching a draw".

Rui Silva is not exempt from blame, but what was more evident to me, was the absence of Diomande in the center of the defense. I have serious doubts that Hojlund would have scored that goal if he had been contesting the play with the Ivorian center-back. Sporting ran after the damage, trying to reach a draw, and Hjulmand ending the game has a header that Milinkovic-Savic stopped with an extraordinary save. We lost a good opportunity to bring another result from Naples. After all, the Italian team was not a monster. In a competition like this, you can't miss these opportunities, because points are worth gold.

To conclude, Moura dos Santos warned the coach of Sporting: "And so, there are three games against teams of our equal, and three defeats. Rui Borges will necessarily have to approach these games with high-caliber opponents differently. I hope that today against Braga, the approach is different, because winning is mandatory".

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