This Saturday, FC Porto beat Vitória de Setúbal (4-0), at Estádio do Dragão, for matchday 2 of the championship, returning to victory after two consecutive defeats. Sérgio Conceição praised the behaviour of the team and believes the Dragons could have scored more goals, but reached what mattered: the three points. Now there’s a classic against Benfica, at Estádio da Luz (Saturday, August 24, 19h00).

The match
“I don’t usually do this, but it was a complicated week for us, especially emotionally, as we are not used to losing. That was our biggest difficulty for this match, managing our emotions, but we did it. We started the match on top and we knew that Vitória de Setúbal could play differently from usual. We were aggressive, strong, and pressing, while also creating several goal opportunities. On the first time Vitória de Setúbal went to our goal, they almost scored, but things were different this time. We played a safe second-half, scored two goals and could have scored more. It was a good match, with quality, but that has to be normal for FC Porto. Overall, We played an excellent match.”

Eyes always set on the opposing goal
“We can’t forget the situation of some players. Marega wasn’t here for the pre-season and Uribe just got here. They can’t run the full match. We are a team that always aims for goal, but that’s part of our DNA. In the second-half, we had more ball in areas that didn’t put Vitória de Setúbal in danger, but we used speed when we had to.”

The upcoming match against Benfica
“Every match is difficult. The next one is against a rival and we are going to prepare it in the best possible way to go there and get the three points.”

The substitutions
“Otávio was going in, but, after we scored two goals in a short period of time, I felt it was important to give match time to other players. Otávio is an important player for us, as everyone else. Everyone is important in our path. We are fighting for three domestic competitions and we are playing in European competitions.”

Empathy between the team and the fans
“There was great empathy between the team and the fans, from the first minute. We got the three points, but that’s normal in a team such as FC Porto. It was good to see the fans with us the entire match. It’s natural that there are fans who are not happy with the last results, but we are here to face the consequences.”