"We were always on top of the game in everything"

POST-MATCH

In his analysis of Benfica-Sporting (1-1), derby of matchday 33 of the Liga Betclic played this Saturday, May 10, at the Estádio da Luz, Bruno Lage l praised the support of the Benfica fans and the performance of the Reds' players. "We still have a chance of winning the league," he said.

"[What separated Benfica's good display and attitude from a more positive result?] We scored another goal because of the chances we created. But the most important thing: the fantastic support from our fans. A very good attitude and display from us, a total commitment from our players. For 90 minutes, they did everything I asked of them to win the game, so I take full responsibility for the draw. And the decision on the championship is postponed. We still have a chance of becoming national champions, but it's not just up to us."

CLEAR CONSCIENCE

"I said this a while ago: I'm not going to be a better or worse coach depending on whether I win another title. I'll have more or the same titles. That's why I always assume with a clear conscience that we always did our best. I think what we did today... we conceded the goal, and then the team was always on top of the game, it was the best team, we prepared for it. When I arrived, we were five points behind, and I think we were in 7th place. I looked at the rounds, I've been telling you this almost since the beginning, that the Championship was going to be discussed in the last two rounds, and we're going into the last round with that possibility. So the most important thing is for us to be aware of what we're doing at every moment, and even in my evolution as a coach over the years, to feel that the players believe in me and give everything for what we stand for. But, as I said yesterday [Friday], I know Benfica's demands very well, and not winning the league is not enough."

PREFERENCE FOR PLAYING A MORE FAST-PACED GAME

"Look, later, if you want, I'll give you the chance to ask one more question, because the first one [What bearing did this derby have on your continuity at Benfica?] I'm going to postpone until the end of the Championship, and then we'll take stock of what we have to do at the end, because, in the Championship, everything is still open.  Regarding the refereeing, I can tell you what I said to the referee at the end, because he really is a very good referee. He recently refereed an international match, and an international match that was much more eventful than this one. I think the intensity of the game and the intensity we put into the game... there were a lot of fouls. There's also a point, in my opinion, which is Nico's [Otamendi] play in the box, which is difficult for the referee to analyze, but I believe that the referee who is in charge of the VAR, André Narciso, if in doubt, has to call the referee so that he can see the images and make a decision, because when we get to the end of the game, and we're talking about that possibility, and former referees referring to that penalty, it really hurts us. That's why VAR is here, it's here to help, and I think it could be very interesting for the referee to go to VAR at that moment and analyze it. Now, if you're asking for my opinion, I always like a game with more running, less fouls. That's my opinion of the refereeing, but I'm not hiding from it, from taking responsibility for the draw."

THE INJUSTICE OF THE RESULT

"[Do you consider the result fair?] No, I don't, because I think Sporting scored the goal, and we were always on top in everything. We had an excellent chance from Pavlidis, but the ball hit the post... I think the team always responded well, we had Di María's shot in the first half, we also had a good chance from Andreas [Schjelderup], you name it. We had a lot of chances and a lot of pace, and I think we deserved to win the game."

SIMPLE MATH

"[Isn't the Championship further away?] No, we think we still have a chance of winning the league, but it's not just up to us. If Sporting win the game, they're champions; if they don't, we have to win our game, so it's so simple to do the math. What we have to do now is recover and lift our spirits. Once again, I repeat, I'm proud of the players, because they played a very good game, at a very good pace, and the opposition couldn't cope with our pace throughout the 90 minutes. So we have to recover, look forward and do our job in Braga, which is to win the game."

THE SUBSTITUTIONS

"[Di María's substitution?] Everything was normal. We had the goal, and our strategy was to try to put the players of enormous quality in behind the midfielders and in front of the two central midfielders. We know that the opposition's central midfielders like to press, so we tried to get either Di [María] or Aktur [Aktürkoğlu] in first, and then we had several situations we could change depending on the result. The players who came on did their job, and then it's about substituting and managing in the best way, so all the substitutions were along those lines. The positioning after Pavlidis, with Belotti coming on, was also along those lines. It was us looking for that space, always keeping people open, we knew we were going to play against a line of five, and everyone who came off reacted normally."

LOOKING FOR GOALS

"We always have to prepare for every scenario. We knew that, regardless of how we went into the game, we had to look for our first goal and then look for our second goal, that was the message we always passed on to the players: 1-0, go in with the right attitude and mentality to score a goal, and after the first goal look for a second. At half-time, that's exactly what happened. I understand your question [Do you feel that conceding a goal too early strategically upset the tactics you had planned for the match and also psychologically affected your players? What did you say to the players at half-time?], but what I think the team also changed was more in terms of individual duels. I think the team also increased their intensity levels in the game, they grew a lot in that, in winning the one-on-ones, in winning the shared balls, and that changed in a big way in the 2nd half for our side."