Rui Costa, Aursnes and refs: Mourinho before Sporting v Benfica | OneFootball

previewed Sporting - Benfica, the match of the 30th round of the Liga Betclic, scheduled for 6:00 pm on Sunday, April 19, at the José Alvalade Stadium. Read again everything the 'Special One' - who has never lost to the lions - said at the press conference.

"I agree. A derby is a derby, there is no need for extra motivation, regardless of the standings or objectives. Even if it were in the summer at the Algarve tournament, it would still always be a derby. I like playing them. I know the difficulties, but I also know the pleasure of playing matches of this magnitude. The objective is to win, respecting the essence of what a derby is. These are the games that worry you least in motivational terms, in terms of focus and desire to play, they are the least concerning."

Starting eleven for the derby. Benfica unbeaten in the Primeira Liga, but in third place

"As for the starting eleven, I won't say. Rui Borges doesn't give his either; if he wanted to swap, I would say it without any problem. I won't give it, although I don't see much advantage in hiding it. There also won't be any surprise that would justify my secrecy. As for the defeats, there are many ways to look at them. I've already said that there are draws, among the ones we've had, that don't make Benfica better than it is. On the contrary, there are draws that feel like defeats, where we threw away wins in the final stretch, or like against Casa Pia when we didn't play a good match. There are other draws where we feel hard done by and that could have ended in victory. However, in an objective way, a team that has never been top of the league needs to be resilient, serious, honest, and respectful of the club's values and the fans' feelings. This team always fought until the end of every game. In that sense, it is positive. The negative side is looking at some matches like Santa Clara and Rio Ave (at home), Casa Pia (away), as defeats and dropped points, which matter in the table. There is also an aspect that hides a season with some positive signs, which is the fact that we have the same number of points Benfica had at this stage last season. The standings say a lot about your merit or demerit, but also about your opponents'. Porto have, unless I'm mistaken, 17 more points than last season. It's true that we haven't had a good season, but under normal circumstances we would be in a different position. It gives me no pleasure not to have defeats; I would rather have a couple of defeats and more points. Even so, it says something positive about this team."

Would you be able to say "I’m staying" at Benfica?

"I can't say something like that because it doesn't depend only on me. A coach, a player, a director, a kit man, a physiotherapist, everyone is part of a club's structure. I think maybe you can't guarantee that you'll still be at your newspaper for the next 10 years either. Of course I can't guarantee it."

Aursnes and Araújo availability

"Aursnes is fit, he trained all week without limitations and played 15 minutes against Nacional. He is well and he will play. He gives us a lot, such as balance. He is a player with very specific intelligence, he reads the game like few others, he knows how to play in different positions and contexts. He will play because I consider him fundamental. Tomás Araújo trained without limitations yesterday and today, and I also believe he is in condition to play."

Derbies and classics have been boring

"I don't know, maybe I don't agree with you. The home match against Porto had four goals, with one team dominating the first 15/20 minutes and the other dominating, almost overwhelming, in the last 20/30 minutes. I think it was a strong match between two strong teams. The match against Sporting at Luz had a good start from Sporting, who were superior on the scoreboard and in the game, but from the 20th minute onward they didn't have another shot on Benfica's goal, and Benfica dominated even without winning. As for the game against Braga, it also had four goals; I would say five because we scored a goal that would have given us the win. The game against Porto was the only one that ended 0-0, perhaps it was a more tactical and calculated match. That was the only one where I would agree with your comment."

Richard Ríos' condition

"Ríos is fine, it didn't seem like anything worrying to me. I fear muscle and knee issues more, and ankles less. He didn't train on the first day of the week and then trained without any kind of problem. With 4 games left and 12 points available, it is possible, although I was criticised for my honesty, I keep repeating that one thing is the pragmatism of the numbers. I keep repeating that one thing is pure mathematics and another is the pragmatism of the numbers. While it is possible, we will keep chasing it; if it stops being possible, we will still keep chasing it. I prefer to be optimistic and think that tomorrow we can win."

Rui Costa has already said he is staying, so how can you not guarantee your future?

"Then it's a non-issue. What deadlock? I already spoke about that situation two months ago. Come up with another question. Can you guarantee you're staying at RTP?"

The journalist says: "I can because nobody wants me. It's easy to answer that. I'm not like Mourinho, who is wanted in Spain..."

Is it possible to believe in victory with Sporting stronger?

"In our history in the league, we are a super difficult team. The team that had the easiest game against us was Casa Pia. All the others had difficult matches. I want to believe in this pattern of behaviour and in the competitive level. I want to believe in the work we did during this week. I have no reason not to believe. Sporting are doing very well, they played two very good matches in the Champions League. We have to be pragmatic, consistent, and even humble in the sense of recognising that we are going to have a difficult game. Benfica have not won the derby at Alvalade for a long time, but we are going there to win."

Criticism of refereeing and differences from the first-leg derby

"I only criticise referees after matches, not before. Beforehand I give them my full confidence, it doesn't seem right to me to doubt their competence and honesty. Whether it's Pinheiro or Veríssimo, or any of them, it makes no difference to me. After the match I feel free to analyse it, before the match, nothing. The appointment tells me nothing positive or negative. We can try to put the derby into context in the sense that both teams need to win. A draw would give Sporting security regarding second place, but maybe that is not something that interests them because they are focused on winning the championship. Regardless of all these variables, a derby is a derby. I can try to reduce unpredictability as much as possible. We worked on different concepts and scenarios to be better prepared."

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