“Huge ambition to win titles for Benfica again”

INTERVIEW

Bruno Lage, Benfica's  coach, gave an interview to UEFA in which he described what the Glorioso means to him and what his ambitions are in the main club competition on the European and world football scene.

"DREAM TEAM OF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS” AND ”AN IDEAL FIVE"

"If memory serves me right, I've coached five: four from Benfica's academy - Ederson, João Cancelo and Bernardo Silva - and two in professional football - Rúben Dias, who is also part of the academy, and, this season, Di María. Then, looking at an ideal five, I can't forget our President Rui Costa and Cristiano Ronaldo. I have seven, I have to choose five... Since I'm an attacking coach, and I even play with a goalkeeper who scored goals for me here when he played with me in the Under-17s, I'll start with Ederson in goal, but also playing at center-back; Rúben Dias as a defender; the number 10, Maestro Rui Costa playing in midfield; and then two men up front, Cristiano Ronaldo and Di María. I'm going to choose these. I'm an attacking coach, so I'm going to choose these five, but I'm extremely proud of the careers of the boys who have come out of here, who have played in the first team and won the Champions League."

BENFICA IN FIVE WORDS

"Home– because it was 20 years ago that I joined Benfica, that I started my career, and I have a huge sense of belonging. I worked in football 7-a-side, then with the Under-15, Under-17, Under-19, B and first teams. Dream– because I ended up fulfilling all my professional dreams at Benfica. Pride– enormous pride in belonging to Benfica's history and titles won. "Unum" – because I identify a lot with Benfica's motto, teamwork, and that's what I see myself in every day, the teamwork with the staff, the teamwork I do with the players, with the structure, and also the relationship we have - me, the staff, the players, the structure - with the fans. It's very important, I identify a lot with teamwork. Ambition– I think it's a word that really portrays the history and tradition of the Club, the demands of our fans, and also of those who work at the Club every day, the hope of continuing to win titles for Benfica."

RETURN

"I felt proud, extremely proud. A few months earlier, I had given an interview in which I mentioned exactly that fact, that I felt my story at Benfica deserved a different ending. And as fate would have it, I was very proud to receive the invitation, and it's with great ambition that I'm here to really make a different ending and win titles for Benfica again."

EXPERIENCES IN ENGLAND AND BRAZIL

"These two experiences were so rich and so different. Looking back now, I think they were fundamental. Even in terms of growing as a coach, I recommend having these experiences if you have the chance, because they make you a better coach. Both the experience in England, because of the culture and context, and the competitions, and the completely different experience in Brazil. As I said, I've had these experiences in these countries, but, of course, the greatest wealth in terms of growth was in England, for various reasons. I even go back a bit because one of the great experiences of my life was actually the Championship, which gave me the ability to experience for the first time what it's like to have a team competing with midweek games. The Championship is a very tough league and it gives us that learning experience, of understanding how to work and prepare a team with games every three days. And the Premier League, which gives us an enormous wealth of experience, firstly because we're playing games with 19 managers who could be competing in the Champions League, with teams full of great players, and the tactical and strategic richness of each game. So they were two fantastic experiences that allow us to keep working, to keep evolving so that we can be more competent every day."

WORK

"Obsessed with work and controlling things. At this level, I don't know if obsessed is the right word, but someone who wants to control and who wants to have as much information as possible so that he can then understand and identify - in what are our training steps with the athletes or our daily interventions with the athletes - what kind of information I can pass on to help them win games. And in this sense, there are two situations in which I want to have as much control as possible. The first is in the preparation and development of my team, in other words, I want to know my players very well, what they can give to the team, how I can stimulate them so that they continue to grow, and what performance they can give to the team, making the team grow in what I think is the way I most like to see a team play. And then, on the other side, preparing for matches. Getting to know our opponents in detail, how they attack, how they defend, and then selecting what I think I need to select to be specific so that, at every moment, the team can be ready to compete and win matches."

ROUTINE

"And in this sense, there are two situations in which I want to have as much control as possible. The first is in the preparation and development of my team, in other words, I want to know my players very well, what they can give to the team, away from training, not football. That's what our profession requires. While I was away, even by choice, I received a few invitations that I was very honored to receive, but I felt that at some point I had to wait for the right project. And so it happened. A project that would bring out the best in me, that would allow me to get a team back playing the game I like and, of course, with the ambition of winning titles. And during that period, I made a rule - because I already have two boys [sons], one who is nine, Jaime, and Manuel, who is four - that there would be no football on the weekend, because my concentration and time would be for them, but that from Monday to Friday, with them at school, I could have the time I like to have to do different things. One of them is to look at the games that interest me, that took place over the weekend, depending on the result, or the system, or the coach, or how the game went, and to be able to watch it during the week more calmly and understand what might have happened in those games. These are always very interesting situations. I also like to have some time to look at what we've done in the past, basically how we train, how we drill, how we can improve. And then I really enjoy reading and watching documentaries about team dynamics, so I confess I've seen a lot of documentaries about team dynamics in other sports, not just football. I ended up reading a lot, a lot about football, about strategy, about communication, about leadership, you name it... It was a very full time, and when you're not working directly in football you have to know how to fill it. One thing that was also interesting was that we, as a coaching staff, created a dynamic of meeting more often and being able to discuss situations about everything in another environment, either playing sport, or at lunch, where we can have the ability to bring interesting subjects to the table and be able to discuss them. That was also a moment for us to be together more as a coaching staff."

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

"We've been in charge of the team for a month now. The team has been growing in what we believe is the way... I won't say it's the right way, but the way that we like best, and that I feel our fans like. That's why it's not going to take a month to create a perfect dynamic, but our ambition is moving in that direction, and what we want in this competition - because our past, both distant and recent, obliges us to do so - is to think about getting to the next stage. And that, at the moment, is our main objective and our main focus in this competition."

"The ideal would be for us to have some time between games to be able to train and prepare the team better in what I think is the ideal way, the way I like to see the team and the way I think the fans like to see it. But the fact that the team has several games during the week is a good sign, it's a sign that it's involved in all the competitions, and that, right now, is the most important thing, that we have the ability to prepare the team for the next game. As for this good start in the Champions League, it's the result of a lot of hard work and dedication from everyone. And above all, it's down to the players interpreting the two strategies in the best possible way, both for the away game with Red Star and the game with Atlético de Madrid. So we can have the best of intentions, prepare in our own way, but then it's the players' game. That's why I tell him that one of the ways I work is to have as much information as possible and then, from a certain moment on, to understand very well what is important to pass on to the players so that they are comfortable in the game, so that they have enough and ideal information, so that they can be at their best, particularly in these Champions League games."

"Our aim is to look at our opponents as we have done so far, to prepare very well for the games, to go out on the pitch to win and, as far as the competition is concerned, what we most want and aspire to, and we're going to do everything we can to make that happen, is for the team to be in the next round."

CHILDHOOD

"Playing football. That's what we did, we played football. Whenever there was an opportunity, it was football. I had a very happy childhood, because we practically dedicated our free time to playing football. With my street friends, we had fantastic experiences playing all kinds of sports in our 'alley'. So it really was a very rewarding childhood. And nowadays, one of the big differences between my childhood and, for example, my children's is that we have a space where they can have the same experiences we had 20 or 30 years ago. I'd like my children to experience sport like that. With my eldest, I've made sure he has two types of experience: one in team sport and one in individual sport. Team sports to socialize, to get to know what a team environment is like, to belong to a team, to have common goals with other people; and individual sports to go in search of something, to challenge oneself, to be able to overcome oneself, in short? I think these are two different realities."