Rúben Dias: "He have to be at the very limit"

In the very first time that Rúben Dias started a match at Estádio da Luz with the Portuguese jersey (3 caps), Portugal made the debut in the Nations League with a victory against Italy. The last one had been in 1957, in official matches.

Sided by Pepe, the Benfica’s defender has completed a good performance again.

“It was an important victory. We wanted to start winning and to link this victory with a nice performance, with quality and goal chances. It was good to begin with this result”, he said, to RTP, one of the eagles called by Fernando Santos (Pizzi was also a starter, being replaced by Renato Sanches at 74'; Gedson remained on the bench).

With a total of 180 minutes combined – against Croatia (friendly) and Italy (official) – the center-back is set as one of the players with the majority of minutes in this international competitive period. Among the benfiquistas, no one played more than Rúben Dias.

“No one’s position is certain. Every training, every preparation stage, every match can bring something different. We have to be always at the very limit, to give our best, in order to keep or conquer our spot”, he declared.

Rúben Dias played at the stadium which he loves the most and praised the 52.635 people on the stands. “The crowd? Fantastic! Great atmosphere at the Stadium”, he considered.

A sold performance against the Italian

The center-back has participated in 60 actions during the match and was successful in 45 of them (75% de efficacy), according the data of the Wyscout platform.

Completed 42 passes (41 successful); in the long passes was perfect: 3/3.

During the 90 minutes against Italy, Rúben Dias also made 6 interceptions.

Text: Marco Rebelo

Pics: João Paulo Trindade / SL Benfica