Roger Schmidt: "We're happy to win this difficult game"

POST-MATCH

In his analysis of Benfica-Toulouse (2-1), in the first leg of the Europa League play-off, played on Thursday, February 15, at the Estádio da Luz, Roger Schmidt praised the fact that the Reds won "the game in a very deserved way".

A FAIR AND NARROW VICTORY

"It was a difficult game, we needed a bit of time to find the right connection to the game. In the first half, we could have done better in terms of intensity with and without the ball, the speed of the game, the quality of passing, doing everything faster. Even so, in the first half we had some very good chances to score. If you don't score against them, and if they have a lot of players behind the ball, waiting for counter-attacks - they also showed their quality - it's not easy, because you have to take more chances, and they're always waiting for their moments. That's why it was a difficult game. That's what we talked about [at half-time], to speed up the game more, with intensity. We were better in the second half, and that's why we were able to create more chances. We scored, we tried to get a good result for the second leg. We made a mistake by giving them the chance to make it 1-1, I think it was the only chance they had in the 90 minutes. After that, our goal was to at least win the game. The team showed good mentality, we had to fight until the last second to score the second goal. There were two penalties, but they were clear. We played better than 2-1 result shows, we had very clear chances to score more than two goals, but in the end we're happy to win this difficult game, it's always good in the first leg."

NATURAL DIFFICULTIES

"You always have difficulties in the next match, especially if you have to play every three days. On Sunday, we played Vitória [SC], you saw the pitch, it's not easy. Today [Thursday, February 15], we had some problems, we have to improve, but we also had a lot of very good moments. We were able to create a lot of chances, we had a lot of moments in the box, around the box, good shots from outside the box, a lot of shots, we missed the goal. We always have to respect our opponents, if Toulouse are able to finish 2nd with one point less than Liverpool in their group, then we know they have quality. It's impossible to dominate opponents for 90 minutes with games every three days, you don't see that in any stadium in Europe, it's completely normal. You have to accept that sometimes in games you have phases where you don't dominate, and then you have to show your quality in accepting and defending deeper, and that's what we did. We did it almost to perfection because they didn't have a clear chance, just the goal. Maybe we were too incisive at times, because António [Silva] was very motivated to be involved in the attack, and he had some problems getting back into position, he was a bit tired and that's why we didn't win the decisive battle to prevent that goal. But we have to accept that, at this stage of the season, our opponents have a few moments when they can put us under pressure, and that's normal. What I saw was that the team fought, not everything was perfect, but it was good enough to win the game in a very deserved way."

THE BENCH'S ENERGY PUSH

"I have to make my decision about what's best for the team. Álvaro [Carreras] had some problems on the wing defensively. With Alex [Bah], we have a very dynamic player on the bench, he's also very good in attack, supporting Ángel [Di María] on the flank. Fredrik [Aursnes] was very good in the game, so taking him off wasn't an option, but he can play on both sides, so it wasn't a problem for him. Arthur [Cabral] was good, but at one point he was very tired, and we needed new energy in the center of the attack. That's why I put Marcos [Leonardo] on and, in the end, he was available in the box, suffered the foul and won the penalty. The substitutions were very good, Alex [Bah] brought new energy to the game, David Neres too. We can always count on our substitutes."

OUTLOOK FOR THE 2ND LEG

"I'm always thinking about the approach to the next game. We always try to use games to analyze and do things better, especially if we play the same opponent twice in eight days, we take a lot of information from the first game. We'll try to analyze the game in a good way and prepare for next week [Thursday, February 22] in Toulouse, but it will be a different game. They can't play like they did today [Thursday, February 15], they have to take their chances and win the game to qualify for the next round, so it will be a slightly more open game. We can improve a few things, but we were good enough to get a deserved win. Now we know what kind of opponents we have to face next week, and it won't be easy."