Villas-Boas praises Portugal but warns: “Time to rethink, less beach” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas commented on the National Team’s debut at the World Cup, which ended in a draw against DR Congo (1-1), and argued that the team of the quinas still has what it takes to turn the situation around, even pointing to the example of other national teams, such as Spain, which also failed to win in the opening round of the group stage. The FC Porto president said he was confident Portugal could go on to win the World Cup.

“It’s possible to turn things around, it’s possible for Portugal to still win the World Cup that fuels the dreams of all Portuguese people. It’s a false start that has happened to many other national teams that drew their opening matches, including the favorites,” he said in an interview with Jornal de Notícias, before acknowledging that the display against the African side was “poor” and offering some advice to the players.

“Spain also drew, and there are many other national teams that are contenders that drew and had difficulties. So, first of all, it has to be put into perspective from a qualification point of view. From a sporting point of view, the performance was poor, it was not up to the standard of what is an absolute golden generation of Portuguese football. That seems obvious to me, it hurts us and forces us into a week of absurd criticism and doubts about the quality of each one of those players. So, I think there needs to be a natural understanding of the competitive process, and I don’t think that is in question. It’s time to rethink, to refocus, to think about strategies, maybe spend less time at the beach and more time in the meeting room. And, clearly, in that strength of unity, Portugal still has every condition to qualify, which should be the very least expected in a group like that. That said, the ambitions are still huge, because this is a golden generation, because we want to, we aspire greatly, because we also want the greatest talent in world football, the man who has given so much to Portugal (Cristiano Ronaldo), to leave holding the World Cup trophy, just as Messi did in Qatar,” he added.

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