Paulo Freitas after Sporting loss: “We won't give in, we'll keep fighting” | OneFootball

Paulo Freitas did not hide the impact of the moment after FC Porto’s defeat to Sporting in the semi-final of the roller hockey championship play-offs, but he refused to entertain any idea of giving up. The Porto coach analysed a highly balanced match with little efficiency, highlighted the decisive role of the goalkeepers, and firmly maintained his promise to keep fighting in the series. At the heart of it all was the conviction that the team still has an answer, and he guaranteed: “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 fighting message: acknowledge the opponent’s merit, look at what his team lacked, and insist that the story of this semi-final is still far from over.

In his reading of the match, the Porto coach avoided oversimplifications and instead painted a picture of a tight game, full of matchups, swings, and details that ultimately weighed on the outcome. Without taking credit away from his own team, he gave Sporting their due and pointed to a succession of factors that, in his view, have prevented FC Porto from overcoming this obstacle.

“FC Porto still haven’t managed to show their strength, because FC Porto do not play alone. We have to give credit to the opponent, who played a great game. It was a very tight match, with chances for both sides. Sporting started better, FC Porto managed to turn it around and were on top at 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 was a set of factors that still has not allowed us to beat the opponent in these play-off semi-finals.”

The explanation paints a clear picture: Paulo Freitas saw an evenly shared 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 incidents, he focused his message on the essentials: FC Porto feel they were in the fight, even if they still have not turned that into superiority on the scoreboard.

When the topic 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 huge 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 had a great performance and, in my opinion, he was the man of the match.”

It is a blunt and straightforward reading: FC Porto produced enough to contest the result, but ran into exactly what so often decides these games. Freitas praised his own goalkeeper, but at the same time identified Xano Edo’s display as the clearest face of Porto’s inability to turn the night in their favour.

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

“If I have to talk about the first game, I have to split it into two moments. In the first 41 minutes, even though the game was tied, I think we were better and controlled many more moments. 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 shown to FC Porto, fairly. Sporting are a team that works that moment of the game very well. We also had the extra man 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 point 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 greater composure. In his view, the tie is not slipping away because of a 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 again hardened in commitment and barely softened in disappointment. Freitas admitted the sadness, acknowledged the teams’ mutual knowledge of each other, and held fast 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. A week from now, we will be here again.”

That, then, was the dominant note of the press conference: less of an outburst than a challenge, less drama than a promise of a response. FC Porto leave with their backs against the wall, but the coach insists on keeping them standing, clinging to the belief 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.