Roger Schmidt: "Team showed good football and attitude"

PRESS CONFERENCE

The Lisbon derby ended with a draw (2-2)! Despite being trailing twice, Benfica always managed to get back into the game, even had the best chances and fought until the end for the victory against Sporting. 

GOOD AND INTENSE MATCH... A DERBY, OF COURSE!

"It was a very good and very intense match, which is to be expected in a derby. We needed 25/30 minutes to really get into the game, at that stage Sporting was better, but we had, at the time, two great chances to score. In their first chance, Sporting managed to score, but we had a good reaction, we equalized. Then we were better in the game, won more duels, managed to push Sporting back and played at a good level. In the second half, I was pleased, we showed a good attitude, we played forwards, and there was a penalty, but we still managed to get back into the game and scored a very good goal. In fact, we managed to get back into the game twice, we tried everything to win, but we have to accept, it's just a draw. My players showed good football and a good attitude."

A LONG WAY TO GO...

"I look at the games individually. We didn't play well against Braga, then we reacted well in the next two games, and today [Sunday] we also played a good game. VI saw a very good game of soccer, intense, where Sporting also showed quality, they have a good team, it wasn't easy. This was matchday 16, we still have 18 more to go. We can take a lot of positive things from this game for the future. We have a long way to go. You have to be prepared for every game."

JUSTICE? MERIT, THAT'S WHAT IT IS!

"[Final score] Justice? Injustice? In football, you have to accept it. We have 90 minutes to score more goals than our opponent, if we manage to do it, we deserve to win, if we can't, we have to accept it. There is no justice or injustice here. We had the better chances, we controlled the game a bit more, but Sporting showed a good performance." 

A STRATEGIC ISSUE

"[David Neres] He was injured for a long time, the plan was to put him in the game later, to bring energy and freshness and, who knows, decide. I wasn't ready to play the full 90 minutes, and I had to make decisions. The decision was strategic [not feature in the starting XI]."