Vasco Botelho da Costa: FC Porto are outstanding, on another level | OneFootball

Vasco Botelho da Costa, coach of Moreirense, has already looked ahead to the match against FC Porto for the 26th round of the Liga Betclic, scheduled for this Sunday at 8:30 pm, at Estádio do Dragão.

Do these matches take some of the responsibility off Moreirense? “What relieves the pressure is the enormous merit of what we have already achieved so far. Thinking a bit about my colleagues who are not yet free from that fight, obviously, we are more comfortable. And that is truly the great peace of mind that we deserve to reach. As for the game, regardless of everything, it would always be a match where it's not hard to motivate the players, where there is a strong desire to appear on big stages, stages where championships are decided. We look at this game with the utmost seriousness and try to do our best to give the best possible image.”

How can the absences in the squad affect Moreirense in the match against FC Porto? “If I have to talk a bit about FC Porto's team, what impresses me is the total commitment within the club, within the group, coaching staff, players, structure. Everyone is very focused, very connected, and you can see it in every play they contest. FC Porto starts the season with enormous pressure in the game itself, a team that presses all over the pitch. Nowadays, because it's not easy to press for 90 minutes week after week, it's a team that, when it has to drop back, does so, but we see in the players' faces that they enjoy defending, that they enjoy locking down the goal. This takes us to a dimension of the game, which is the mental and physical dimension, where FC Porto is extraordinary, at a stratospheric level, the best I've seen since I can remember watching football. And that's going to be our big challenge, to be able to have the competitive levels and indices to play this game, to be able to contest the match. And that's where the absences and what has been our daily routine come in, where we have many juniors training and obviously the intensity of training ends up dropping a bit, which is for us to be able to be competitive throughout the 90 minutes, which was also the big difficulty I think we felt last week. It's something that we always have to look at from a positive point of view, from the perspective of opportunity, from the perspective of growth, because, as I always say, we are not a finished product. We are a process under construction, a process in evolution. For the stage of evolution we are at, I repeat, it's fantastic what we have already achieved, fantastic. So, we see this as a very big challenge, it will surely be very difficult, but we also believe that in other moments, in the tactical dimension, the technical dimension, the strategic dimension, we will be able to have our opportunities. There are certain difficulties that we have to overcome, but always to win, because that's our way of being.”

In what way do these absences delay Moreirense's evolution and growth within the competition? “This has a bit to do with how we set our goals from here on. We want to climb places in the standings, for us it's not the same to finish 12th or 11th. We feel that in many moments we have shown quality to belong to higher places. There is a slightly more specific goal that we also want to achieve, which is to be able to turn matches against the top teams into results and points. The team with fewer options at the start may be less prepared to have more output, to have a more positive result, but on the other hand, it also gives us room for another goal, which is to have a very clear certainty about the real capacity of each player in our squad. We don't think of this project as just for one season, not a month, not even two seasons. Miguel Silva, for now, will be in the match. Regardless of everything that has happened to us, I don't feel that these absences are necessarily taking away our output. Even looking at last week's game, the truth is that it was also a very specific match. I take the example of Travassos, who is a player who is usually very good for 90 minutes, and the truth is that, due to the characteristics of the game, all of Travassos's high-intensity metrics, which he usually reaches over 90 minutes, he reached in the first 45. So, each game is a game. There are games where the physical dimension is very important, as will be the case in this match, there are games where the mental dimension is also important, and in matches against the big teams, obviously, the mental dimension also carries a lot of weight, but there are others where the game leads us much more to a tactical dimension, a technical dimension.”

What can Moreirense take from the first-round match for this clash with FC Porto? “It will surely be a different game, even because of the dimensions of the pitch. FC Porto is an easy team to decipher, very strong in what they set out to do, there is a very interesting dynamic in the way all the players, regardless of who plays, follow the coach's idea. Because of the characteristics of the game model, FC Porto is a team that doesn't take many risks in build-up, keeps the build-up as closed as possible to always stay balanced, it's a team that tries to use the long ball a lot to stretch the opponent. Surely it will be a somewhat different game in that aspect and more demanding for us to succeed in controlling FC Porto's offensive organization. The lessons we take from the matches we play against these teams are fundamentally the experience. I often say that there are moments when the big team's jersey, by itself, already makes some difference and it seems that teams are already starting 1-0 down. When these games become a habit for our players, there will no longer be that anxiety, that nervousness. We are more prepared and calmer to play this game, but always with the awareness that we are talking about the first-placed team in this championship. A very strong offensive team wins games, but what wins championships and standings is the defensive side, and without a doubt, FC Porto impresses a lot there and I think that's clearly what justifies this first place.”

Can Cédric Teguia be called up? In this scenario, can you count on Fabiano Souza? “Fabiano was practically three and a half months without playing, he was a player we even expected might leave. He is not yet ready, he is clearly in pre-season. Of the players we have absent, Cédric is the one who is closest, but he is still not in condition to be in this game. All the others are more prolonged situations, Yan will still be out for a few more games, Dinis, for now, has finished the season, Álvaro only for the last games. But regarding Fabiano, he was out for a long time, has been with the team, but is not yet in condition, not yet ready.”

Can Moreirense take advantage of the fact that FC Porto is in the middle of a European tie? “No. I often say, and if there is something that FC Porto has proven, it's that whoever plays, the competitiveness is there, the process is there, the competence is there, the dynamic is there. I don't believe it will have any kind of influence, and as if a very strong squad full of options wasn't enough, they still have a B team that is doing a fantastic job and also has many solutions.”

When you accepted this project, did you believe you would secure survival so soon? “A coach always expects to do the best possible, but it's not something that I think makes sense for me to spend a lot of time thinking about. We found here a bit of the club people's DNA, which is that we want to have ambition, we want more. It's a year zero, the expectation was perhaps set too high because of what we managed to do in the initial phase of the season. Maximum ambition for what remains, survival is no longer a topic and now the topic is to try to be as competitive as possible.”

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