Rui Borges on Sporting-Braga draw: responds to claims of easing off | OneFootball

Rui Borges rejected the idea that Sporting cannot react in moments of pressure; Lions drew with Braga

Oct 5, 2025 | 22:00 |

A penalty goal at 90+7 minutes allowed Braga to draw 1-1 at Sporting's home this Sunday, squandering the chance for Sporting to match Porto at the top of the league. At the end of the match, Rui Borges dismissed the notion that there was any "complacency" from the team.

"I don't think it's complacency. We had doubts in marking, Braga puts a lot of people in the first phase of construction, their central defenders started to spread wide, we were left with doubts. We let Braga gain confidence. In the 2nd half, we improved in approaching the man, Braga had an opportunity, which resulted in a save by Rui, but we grew. We had chances to score and ended up being penalized by a play at the end."

The coach laments the late reaction: "The reaction happened. When Fotis and Alisson came in, we created 1-on-1 situations. Things could have ended differently, but it ended in a specific play of the game, where we were penalized, just like last season precisely with Braga."

The coach also rejected the idea that the team cannot react against big teams in moments of pressure. "All games are difficult, but if that's what you want to focus on... It's all relative, what matters is winning, understanding that we should have had more energy at certain moments of the game, which we didn't. The energy has to be there from the start, the games are very competitive and to win we have to fight from the beginning. We played against a very competent team."

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