This Friday, Sérgio Conceição did the preview of the match against Marítimo, for matchday 26 of the League. The Dragons start the matchday tie with Benfica in the lead, whereas Marítimo is 11th.

Pressure keeps growing
“As I have been saying, as the end of the championship is approaching, matches gain a different weight, there’s that positive pressure for the teams that want to win the title, like us, or those that want to save themselves. We have to fight for the three points.”

Liverpool is the opponent in the Champions League
“The draw determined, that’s our opponent. We will prepare that match in the best possible way when those matches come. We need to look at what we didn’t do, or at what we did last year that wasn’t well done. Liverpool has great individual and team quality. In comparison to last year, the difference is the goalkeeper. They know each other well and their dynamics is easily identified. These will be two good matches. What matters right now is to praise our presence among the eight best teams in Europe.”

The reaction of the players to the draw?
“I’m not sure of how the players reacted. We saw the draw, but didn’t talk about it, and I didn’t start any conversation about it, because we have the match against Marítimo tomorrow. We play this important match tomorrow, against Marítimo.”

Benfica’s tie in the previous matchday
“We don’t need others. What we do need is to work every day in the best way we can, prepare the matches well, so that we are ready to win them. The real vitamin is what we do every day. It won’t matter to look at other teams if we don’t do our job. That’s how we are going to continue. We are looking at tomorrow’s match, against a Marítimo that has been growing. In the match against Moreirense, the revelation in the League~, they were losing 2-0 and managed to win 3-2, and that’s a display of strength and quality. It’s up to us to look for the goal and create situation to win the match.”

Playing again before the main opponent
“We have to play our match, and we aren’t motivated by other teams. Of course we are keeping an eye on their match, and it’s always best that our rivals lose points, but we work and focus on our team, on winning our match. There are nine matches to go and we think only of ourselves. Tomorrow, we have an important job to do, so we can win the match. We will be here to look at the numbers when the championship ends.”

Militão moving to Real Madrid.
“The situation with Militão is public, but it won’t change our life. There are players that are ending their contract that might stay, there are players with four more years in their contract that might leave. That’s football. I’m sure Militão will stay focused and work hard, nothing will change. When he has to play he will, when he doesn’t he won’t, if he has to be right fullback or defensive midfielder he will, and so on. Congratulations to FC Porto for having signed him and helped him evolve. I hope that there is one or two more good deals for FC Porto, and we will just have to go through it again, to help FC Porto remain a competitive team in domestic and European competitions.”

Herrera and Danilo among the players that run the most in the Champions League
“For the way we play, and for what we ask of our midfielders, they need to have that capacity. The distance they run during matches is always high. They are players that are always available and important. But I can also add Óliver, a midfielder that always runs over 12 km per match. Our midfielders always run great distances.”

Will FC Porto become the champion if the team wins every match?
“We will be closer to winning the championship if we win every match. But I’m not a fortune teller. What I said is that we would be closer to winning the championship if we win every match, but we know our rival may also win every match. At the start of the season, I stated this year’s champion would win the same points as last season. We, Benfica, Braga and Sporting will still be fighting until the end. A lot can still happen.”

Under19 in the quarter-finals of the Youth League
“Congratulations to them, to the kids trained by Mário Silva. I watched the match, like I always do with the B team and the Under19. Fábio Silva, for example, has already joined our training sessions, and for the break for the national team, I know I can also count on two or three more. We have a group with youngsters with great quality and we need to offer them conditions so they can evolve and join the main squad in the future.”