FC Porto went back home and returned to victories, beating Desportivo das Aves by 2-0, and “doing what they were supposed to”, according to Sérgio Conceição. The coach praised the good start of the team, which allowed for two early goals, and the good performance, especially in the first-half. Therefore, Sérgio felt the victory was fair, even if not spectacular, he added, as “no one wins by four or five goals” at this time in the season.

Match analysis
“It was a fair victory, not a spectacular one, but no one will be able to win by four or five goals at this point in the championship. We started well, with pressure, and quality in the attack. We ended up scoring two goals in 13 minutes, Aves hadn’t reached our goal after 35 minutes, and we had a number of situations to score from. It was a great first-half, but, on one or two situations, we should have done better in the defence. We corrected that situation at halftime.

In the second-half, Aves showed up, moved their lines a little further, but never created any dangerous situation, with the exception for the ball that hit the post, in the final stage, while we continued to create goal opportunities. It was a honest response, we did what we had to, which was to win the match. We got three more points for our fight.”

The changes in the second-half
“We controlled the match, keeping the ball. It’s true that I placed Otávio in the middle and sent Hernâni to take advantage of the fact that Aves had an alternative fullback on the left. We always had control of the match and kept looking for the third, as we always aim at attacking, and that was clear again tonight, regardless of the fact that we play with one or two forwards.”

The communication between the players
“Communication is always important. We took the responsibility, but the players did as well, for everything that is our work setting, our locker room. It’s mostly for the respect they wanted on the pitch, as they are all great men outside the stadium. On the pitch, we face battles we want to win and that communication is vital. It was a hard week, we’re not used to work with a defeat on our back, but we had to, analyse and correct what went wrong.”

Support to Danilo
“It was a homage to an extremely professional and serious player. He is worthy of FC Porto.”

The classic against Benfica
“It’s a match where we will face a direct opponent, but we are not hiding from our identity. We will have time to talk of that match.”