Bruno Lage denies Rui Costa’s account of his Benfica exit, unfortunately | OneFootball

Bruno Lage denies Rui Costa's version of the date of the Benfica – Santa Clara match, a game that ended in a one-all draw. In an interview with the newspaper A Bola, the former coach of the eagles claims that he asked for the game to be postponed, but was told it was not possible, with Mário Branco leading the refusal.

"Unfortunately, at the beginning of the second cycle, in my opinion, and President Rui Costa knows this, director Mário Branco knows this, I think we made a methodological error, which was to start this second cycle with the Santa Clara game on Friday," Bruno Lage began.

When asked about the justification given to him by Benfica's management, Bruno Lage reveals: "That it was difficult, that it was difficult to change. What I can tell you afterwards is that there was a draw with Santa Clara and then we started the Champions League game in the best way."

"No coach in the world likes to have only one day, that is, players traveling on Wednesday to all gather on Thursday, to play on Friday, nobody likes to have to prepare a game under these circumstances, and we even less so," added Bruno Lage, who had already commented on his departure from the reds.

"Without having the pre-season and also because the players were arriving, Sudakov and Lukebakio, at that moment they had practically not trained and had not met the team. But that does not take away, and I said at the time, and I have no problem assuming our responsibility, that we should have won that game," concluded Bruno Lage.

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