Rui Borges: Sporting star fine, no need to sub him at half-time | OneFootball

After the draw against Benfica (1-1), Rui Borges attended the press conference to analyze the green and white team's performance in the derby. The coach considered the result "fair" and remains confident in winning the third consecutive championship, also mentioning that Francisco Trincão does not have any injury, despite the "knock" he suffered.

"In the first half, overall, we were better. Especially in the first 25-30 minutes. I think we could have made it 2-0 in those finishing situations. Benfica had two chances, the goal and a cross into our area. They grew a bit after the goal, also with the help of the crowd. We missed one or two passes, but we never lost our balance. In the first half, we were better. In the second half, Benfica was better in the sense that they had more possession. We couldn't keep up. We missed many passes. We didn't have the same energy as in the first half. Even with one or two different nuances from Benfica, which we were prepared for, we started losing some timing in pressing and positioning. We let Benfica stretch the field and push us further back. Benfica always tried to speed up the game, also with the energy coming from the crowd, from outside in. They had two shots. Benfica was better with the ball in the second half, but without creating much danger. We missed more passes and more pressing reads that we had identified. The energy dropped a little, in general. That was the game," he began by saying.

The coach reiterated that nothing is decided yet in the title race: "My confidence remains total. I already said this game wouldn't decide anything, regardless of the result. There is still a lot of football to play, many points to win. I'm not satisfied because I wanted to win and I wanted the team to give a bit more in the second half. Sometimes it was Benfica's merit, other times our own shortcomings. The energy wasn't the same. But I wanted to win."

Rui Borges denies that the team was satisfied with the draw: "We were not resigned to the draw, far from it, we just weren't able to do more. I have to talk to the group to understand what they felt and our drop in performance. It was collective. It was natural that Pote would fade around the 60-65 minute mark, Morita also had a yellow card. We tried to refresh, we brought on Quenda and Simões, two young players with a lot of irreverence and energy, but they also didn't come on very well at first. They improved afterwards. Benfica was better in the duels, we lost some. In the second half, Benfica put Enzo to build as a third man on the left, something we had already identified. Their energy was superior to ours, also because of what they got from the stands. It's something we have to understand."

The coach also refused to talk about the refereeing: "I'm not even going to comment. The game ended as it had to: in a draw. I can't be more honest, I think the draw ends up being fair for what the game was," said the coach before talking about Francisco Trincão's physical condition: "Was I going to take him off at halftime because of a knock? That's not it. It was a lack of collective energy, not individual. The two midfielders didn't have the same energy as in the first half and that then spreads to the others. We can't change everyone, we tried to change the players we needed for that moment. This is what the game is, we're not always going to play very well for 90 minutes. We played against a great team," he concluded.

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