Filipe Cândido: Only Porto and Napoli matched P. Ferreira v Sporting | OneFootball

Filipe Cândido highlighted the fact that his team scored two goals in the P. Ferreira - Sporting match. The coach of the "castores" spoke to journalists in a press conference after the third round of the Portuguese Cup, which ended with a 3-2 victory for the green and whites.

"I am extremely proud of this group of players; they give everything every single day. Today was no different. And when that's the case, there’s nothing anyone can say to us. No matter who we’re up against, this is the attitude I want to see reflected in our matches. But that comes from our daily work. I’m very proud of the group, of the way the players commit themselves. We have a number of players with less experience in these competitions, and four or five who hold the group together. But these games help us grow, and that’s what I’ve been trying to convey in every competition," Filipe Cândido began by saying.

The opposing coach continued: "If we look at the last league games, despite being a man down at Oliveirense, we still managed to rescue a point. Against FC Porto B, with nine men, they still didn’t beat us. It’s always going to be hard to beat this team, I guarantee that. I think, given the way we were able to limit Sporting’s play through the middle as much as possible, while also managing to keep possession, we were never a team that was too short. We managed to launch some promising counterattacks and it was a pity."

"Only FC Porto and Napoli have scored two goals against this Sporting team. What Sporting has been doing proves their quality. It was a shame about the set-piece goal and the own goal near the end. Maybe the players deserved penalties. Perhaps a draw would have been the fairest result and then we’d see what happened in the shootout. But I’m extremely proud of them. We know we have to keep going, we can’t ease up. Our path has been quite difficult, but we want to keep taking steady steps to ensure the club’s survival so that we can then achieve the goal we want so much in the League," the P. Ferreira coach concluded.

Tiago Ferreira, a P. Ferreira player, also commented on the defeat: "We were beaten by fatigue and the first half of extra time was what killed us. We played the game toe-to-toe with Sporting, who had to go all out. The first half of extra time was really what did us in, we felt the pressure, and in an unfortunate moment for me, it led to the 2-3. In the second half we still tried, but what matters was the spirit and fight we showed against the two-time champions. The effort was worth it, as it pushed Sporting to their limit to go through. The own goal? That’s football, Sporting had a lot of attacking pressure and sometimes when you try to clear the ball, you risk an own goal, and that’s what happened."

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