Paulo Freitas after another loss to Sporting: “We’ll fight to the end” | OneFootball

Paulo Freitas did not hide the impact of the moment after FC Porto’s defeat to Sporting in the semi-finals of the roller hockey championship play-offs, but he refused to entertain any idea of giving up. The Porto coach analysed a tightly balanced match with little efficiency, highlighted the decisive role of the goalkeepers, and stood firm in his promise to keep fighting in the tie. At the heart of it all was the conviction that the team still has an answer, and he assured: “this team will not surrender.”

With no margin for error and the dream of a third straight title under pressure, FC Porto left Alvalade shaken, but far from throwing in the towel. Paulo Freitas, coach of the Dragons’ roller hockey team, came forward with a message of determination: acknowledge the opponent’s merit, look at what his team lacked, and insist that the story of this semi-final is not yet over.

In his reading of the match, the Porto coach avoided oversimplifications and instead described a tight game of match-ups, swings, and details that ultimately weighed on the outcome. Without taking any credit away from his own team, he shared praise with Sporting and pointed to a series of factors that, in his view, have so far prevented FC Porto from overcoming this obstacle.

“FC Porto still haven’t managed to show their strength, because FC Porto are not playing alone. We have to give credit to the opponent, who played a great game. It was a very tight game, with chances for both sides. Sporting started better, FC Porto managed to turn it around and were on top by the end of the first half,” he said. “We didn’t start the second half well, but then we were stronger and Sporting limited themselves to managing the lead they had built in the first half. That lead came only from efficiency after a deflected ball and a well-awarded set piece. In the first half, FC Porto committed four fouls and finished the game with 10, while Sporting committed seven fouls in the first half and ended the game with nine. We also saw a blue card. I don’t want to go down that road; there has been a set of factors that still has not allowed us to beat the opponent in these play-off semi-finals.”

His explanation paints a clear picture: Paulo Freitas saw an evenly split game, but chose to place it on the level of details, where efficiency and emotional management end up separating teams. And, by avoiding dwelling on other episodes, he focused his message on the essentials: FC Porto feel they were in the contest, even if they have not yet turned that into scoreboard superiority.

When the subject turned to the lack of goals, the coach was direct. For him, the difference lay less in the volume of play and more in finishing ability, in a duel where both goalkeepers played a leading role.

“Sporting were more efficient than FC Porto, but Xavi Malián put in a great performance. Even so, the opposing goalkeeper ends up being the man of the match because he did not allow us to be effective. To win, we have to score goals,” he explained. “The game came down to this: there were two goalkeepers on the rink. Xavi Malián is a tremendous goalkeeper, but Xano Edo also delivered a great performance and, in my opinion, was the man of the match.”

It is a blunt and straightforward reading: FC Porto produced enough to fight for the result, but came up short precisely where these games are so often decided. Freitas praised his own goalkeeper, but at the same time identified Xano Edo’s display as the clearest sign of Porto’s inability to turn the night in their favour.

The coach also went back to the first game of the series to support the idea that the tie has been decided in very specific moments. There, he once again split the match into distinct phases, between the early control and the drop-off that followed a spell of numerical inferiority.

“If I have to talk about the first game, I have to divide it into two moments. In the first 41 minutes, although the game was tied, I think we were better and controlled many more phases. Xano also put in a great performance and kept Sporting in the game,” he analysed. “In the last nine minutes, the game came down to the efficiency Sporting had with the extra man after a blue card was rightly shown to FC Porto. Sporting are a team that works that phase of the game very well. We also had a numerical advantage twice afterwards, but it is not the same thing. After we conceded those goals, it was very difficult to recover the team emotionally. We were unable to reproduce our quality at that moment in the game.”

In that reinterpretation, Paulo Freitas laid out a line of continuity between the two matches: FC Porto feel they have the tools to compete, but they have been caught out in the moments when the semi-final demands the greatest composure. In his view, the tie is not slipping away for lack of identity, but because of a succession of episodes in which Sporting have been more clinical.

When it came time to look ahead, the message once again became firmer in commitment and hardly softened in disappointment. Freitas admitted the sadness, acknowledged the teams’ mutual knowledge of each other, and clung to the idea of total resistance.

“We are sad and disappointed. This is not what we wanted,” he stressed. “We know what can hurt this Sporting team, but they also know what can hurt us. Even so, this team will not surrender; it will fight until the last drop of sweat and leave everything on the rink. In a week, we will be here again.”

That, then, was the dominant note of the press conference: less of an outpouring than a challenge, less drama than a promise of a response. FC Porto leave pinned back, but the coach insists on keeping them on their feet, clinging to the conviction that there is still strength left to show and a semi-final to reopen.

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