Andersson on Sporting defeat: “We were naïve, title now very hard” | OneFootball

Magnus Andersson, FC Porto’s coach, appeared resigned to the outcome of the derby against Sporting, due to “the several clear chances wasted at crucial moments that could have had an important psychological impact”.

“It was small things that made the difference, especially wasting some good attacking chances in the final period. We didn’t start well, with many problems and two suspensions right at the beginning, but we recovered and went one goal ahead, only for some things to go wrong at that point,” said the Swede, acknowledging the impact of that lack of efficiency: “When you are in a match of vital importance for both clubs, you have to control your emotions because when you start missing certain details at the right moments, that carries a lot of weight, and the truth is that we were naive in some situations. It’s true that you never know what will happen, but if you score in those moments everything could have been different.”

The coach also showed signs of discontent in his assessment of the refereeing team.

“For me the referees were never the problem, but when a delegate leaves his area to punish an FC Porto player with a two-minute suspension for something he didn’t do, that makes me feel outraged, almost like vomiting. I don’t understand how two people who are external to the game’s decisions decide to start interfering in the match,” Magnus Andersson said, without hesitating to admit that “now it is very difficult to reach the title”: “We are not going to give up, but it will be complicated. We will try to win the rest of the matches, but that will probably no longer be enough, so our main goal now is to reach the EHF Cup Final Four, to be in Hamburg. The problem is that now we are going to face the fourth-placed team in the Bundesliga.”

As for the unusual incident involving Sporting before the derby, Magnus Andersson was clear in saying that he could add nothing.

“I don’t know anything about what happened. I heard comments, of course, saying that they were not feeling well in the dressing room, but I really don’t know anything. I hope everything is fine with them,” said Magnus Andersson.

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