Rio Ave came to at Estádio do Dragão steal points from FC Porto (1-1), leaders in the championship, but that didn’t affect the confidence of Sérgio Conceição in his players. The blue and white coach praised the “good match” and the “fantastic attitude” the players showed, reminding that there was a penalty “the size of Clérigos’ Tower” that wasn’t given. “We did everything to win the match”, the coach stated, leaving a strong message to the entire Blue Sea: “We will fight to the last drop. To the last drop!”

You can count on FC Porto
“We scored a goal that was disallowed for three centimetres. But we have to accept that, because, in favour or against us, it is what it is, and it will depend on the moment when they put in those lines. I don’t even know what to say in a situation like this. We had more than enough situations to win the match, including a penalty, that, even though it wasn’t seen, it was the size of Clérigo’s Tower. But you can count on us. I think we played a good match, my players had a fantastic attitude, even if, it should be said, in the last ten minutes, in stoppage time, they had more heart than mind, but, until then, we were better in everything. Rio Ave, until then, hadn’t made it to our goal, they did close to the end, when we were trying to do everything to win the match. We faced a well-organized Rio Ave, another team that changed their usual routines for us. Either way, we were expecting that, especially looking at the absences of Diego Lopes and Filipe Augusto, so we had Nakajima playing behind Tiquinho, with Moussa on the left and Otávio on the right, exactly to try to avoid the three central defenders that we predicted Rio Ave would use. It was a match where we were better in everything, but, once again, and I’m aware of this because I’ve been in football for long enough, it’s getting harder to win as the championship is getting to the end. In my opinion, the penalty was clear, so I don’t understand. I’m not making excuses with this, as we could have been more efficient in other situations of the match. Either way, it gets harder to win as we are getting to the end. I remember, and now regarding Rio Ave specifically, that there were two penalties ignored in Vila do Conde. By coincidence, it was the same referee, who I believe to be the best Portuguese referee, be aware. But he has been having bad performances with us. And I don’t want to excuse this result with the refereeing. The match was what we all saw, we were better, we deserved to win, we should have been more efficient and we weren’t.”

A promise to fight to the last drop
“I was sure that it was a goal, I did the substitution based on that, with Aboubakar and Matheus Uribe. In the meantime, I was informed that I had to wait because the goal could have been irregular, and, by then, Aboubakar was already in. There was nothing to do. In the meantime, Fábio went in to add to the attack. We tried from the wings, from the middle, with crosses, with shots... We did everything to win the match, but our heads are high, this is a fantastic group, our spirit is strong and we will fight to the last drop. To the last drop!”