Crespo hails São Paulo after Fortaleza win: “Spirit made the difference” | OneFootball

Coach Hernán Crespo was full of praise for his players after the 2-0 victory over Fortaleza, this Thursday, at Arena Castelão, for the 26th round of the Brazilian Championship.

The Tricolor commander had to deal with the early expulsion of Rigoni, 20 minutes into the first half, but saw his players overcome on the field to end a streak of four losses and a nearly five-year taboo without beating Fortaleza.

"I think the spirit has always been the same. Many times it happened that the result did not match the team's performance. If you look at the last games, it did not deserve the score it had. I think the spirit of the group prevailed again, in a difficult moment. The team always maintained the same line, with courage. It's touching to see. They are often criticized, but they fight, struggle every day to achieve results," commented Crespo.

"The identity the group has always defended and perhaps it was even more difficult against a rival that historically did not lose, it had been 11 games without losing to São Paulo. To come here and achieve a victory in this way, with all the adversities... it's a group that deserves it," he added.

Against Fortaleza, São Paulo took to the field with a defensive line that included two makeshift midfielders: Negrucci and Luiz Gustavo, who had not played for six months. Without Arboleda, suspended, and Ferraresi, Tolói and Alan Franco, injured, Tricolor had to reinvent itself and showed the strength of its squad against an opponent that is also not a benchmark for much, as it is in the penultimate place of the Brazilian Championship.

"The expectation is always to win the game, with all the difficulties. We work at São Paulo, we have problems every day. I have many. We know where we are, we know that we will have problems every day. The idea is to focus on the solution, not the problem, and trust in the group of players, in how they train every day," said the coach of São Paulo.

After the victory they will say that the group is large, that Crespo is a phenomenon, but we have to trust, we work day by day, and usually the result is a consequence. But, football teaches us that it is not always like this. At the end of the day, we count two losses in the Libertadores, for me, eliminated, everyone will be eliminated, except the champion. I think a defeat can happen after the elimination too. Today, in the current situation, we had to show that we were standing and we added even more problems, but if you trust the players, in the work, things end up," he concluded.

São Paulo returns to the field next Sunday, at 4pm (Brasília time), against Palmeiras, at Morumbi. For this match, coach Hernán Crespo will not be able to count on Rigoni, who was sent off against Fortaleza.

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